Return to home2012 Jun 28,
The United Nations declared that March 20 each year will be the
International Day of Happiness.
(AFP, 6/29/12)43BC
Mar 20, Ovid (d.17or18AD), Publius Ovidius Naso, Roman poet, was
born. His writings included: “The Art of Love."
(WUD, 1994, p.1032)(SFEC, 12/22/96, Z1 p.2)(HN,
3/20/01)

1345 Mar 20, A conjunction of
Saturn, Jupiter and Mars was thought to be the "cause of plague
epidemic."
(MC, 3/20/02)

1413 Mar 20, Henry IV (b.1367),
King of England (1399-1413), died in the house of the Abbot of
Westminster. He was succeeded by Henry V (b.1387).
(AP,
3/20/97)(www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/henry_iv_king.shtml)

1602 Mar 20, The Dutch East
India Company (Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie) was chartered to
carry on trade in the East Indies. The VOC traded to 1798 whereupon
its possessions were dissolved into the Dutch empire. In 2010 a
student found a share in the company issued to an official named
Pieter Harmenz dating to Sep 9, 1606. As a result, continuous trade
in company stock emerged on the Amsterdam Exchange.
(SFC, 9/10/10,
p.A2)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stock_market)(Econ, 2/25/12,
SRp.4)

1616 Mar 20, Walter Raleigh was
released from Tower of London to seek gold in Guiana. He took along
his son Wat (22), who was killed during an attack on a Spanish
outpost.
(MC, 3/20/02)(WSJ, 1/6/04, p.D10)

1792 Mar 20, In Paris, the
Legislative Assembly approved the use of the guillotine.
(HN, 3/20/99)

1800 Mar 20, French army
defeated Turks at Heliopolis, Turkey, and advanced to Cairo.
(MC, 3/20/02)

1811 Mar 20, George Caleb
Bingham (d.1879), Missouri painter, was born in Virginia. His
paintings included "Fur Traders on the Missouri."
(WUD, 1994,
p.149)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Caleb_Bingham)
1811 Mar 20, Napoleon II, the
Duke of Reichstadt, was born. He was the son of Napoleon Bonaparte.
(HN, 3/20/99)

1816 Mar 20, The U.S. Supreme
Court, in Martin vs. Hunter's Lessee, affirmed its right to review
state court decisions.
(AP, 3/20/97)

1828 Mar 20, Henrik Ibsen
(d.1906), poet and dramatist was born in Skien, Norway. His work
included “Peer Gynt" and “Hedda Gabler." "The worst enemy of truth
and freedom in our society is the compact majority. Yes, the damned,
compact, liberal majority." In 1971 the 3rd and final volume of
“Ibsen: A Biography" by Michael Meyer (d.2000) was published.
(HFA, '96, p.26)(HN, 3/20/98)(AP, 7/22/98)(SFC,
8/10/00, p.D2)

1833 Mar 20
The United States and Siam (now Thailand) concluded a commercial
treaty in Bangkok.
(AP, 3/20/97)

1836 Mar 20, At Coleto Creek,
Texas, Colonel James Fannin after being surrounded by Mexican forces
under General Urrea, agreed to surrender to Colonel Juan Jose
Holzinger. Fannin was unaware that General Santa Anna had decreed
execution for all rebels. Urrea negotiated the surrender "at the
disposal of the Supreme Mexican Government," falsely stating that no
prisoner taken on those terms had lost his life.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goliad_Campaign)

1841 Mar 20, Edgar Allen Poe's
The Murders in the Rue Morgue, considered the first detective story,
was published. [see April 14, 20, 1841]
(HN, 3/20/01)

1852 Mar 20, Harriet Beecher
Stowe's (1811-1896) "Uncle Tom's Cabin" was first published in book
form after being serialized. It was based on the theme that slavery
is incompatible with Christianity. In 2011 David S. Reynolds
authored “Mightier Than the Sword: Uncle Tom’s Cabin and the Battle
for America."
(SFC, 3/30/97, Z1. p.6)(AP, 3/20/08)(SSFC,
7/3/11, p.G4)

1854 Mar 20, The Republican
Party was founded when former members of the Whig political party
met to establish a new political party that would oppose the spread
of slavery into the western territories. [see Feb 28]
(MC, 3/20/02)

1878 Mar 20, Thomas Fisher, an
alleged member of the Molly McGuires, was hung at the Carbon County
Prison of Mauch Chunk, Pa. He had been convicted of the murder of
Morgan Powell, a supervisor for the Lehigh Coal and Navigation
Company. Fisher insisted up to his death on his innocence.
(HT, 4/97, p.20)

1913 Mar 20, It was reported
that Alcatraz island is to be abandoned as an Army prison and will
be turned over to the Dept. of Justice for use as a federal
penitentiary. It was deactivated as a military prison in 1933.
(SSFC, 2/17/13, DB
p.42)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcatraz_Island)

1915 Mar 20, The French called
off the Champagne offensive on the Western Front.
(HN, 3/20/98)

1917 Mar 20, Dame Vera Lynn,
British songstress, was born. She sang "White Cliffs of Dover" and
"Lily Marlene" during World War II.
(HN, 3/20/99)
1917 Mar 20, Gideon Sundback,
Swedish-born engineer, patented an all-purpose zipper while working
for the Automatic Hook and Eye Co. of Hoboken, New Jersey. The
zipper name was coined by B.F. Goodrich in 1923, who used it to
fasten rubber galoshes. In 1994 Robert Friedel authored “Zipper: An
Exploration in Novelty."
(ON, 7/04, p.5)(www.inventors.about.com)

1918 Mar 20, The Bolsheviks
asked for American aid to rebuild their army.
(HN, 3/20/98)

1922 Mar 20, Raymond Walter
Goulding, Radio comedian of Bob and Ray fame, was born.
(HN, 3/20/01)
1922 Mar 20, Carl Reiner,
comedian (2000 Year Old Man, Dick Van Dyke Show), was born in the
Bronx.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1922 Mar 20, President Harding
ordered U.S. troops back from the Rhineland.
(HN, 3/20/98)
1922 Mar 20, The 11,500-ton
Langley was commissioned into the U.S. Navy as America’s first
aircraft carrier. Langley was not regarded as a beautiful ship. Her
flight deck was 533 feet long and 64 feet wide with an open-sided
hanger deck, inspiring the nickname “the Old Covered Wagon." Under
the leadership of Commander Kenneth Whiting, Langley served as a
base for reconnaissance aircraft and a laboratory to develop new
procedures for launching and recovering planes, such as the use of
cross-deck arresting wires to brake incoming aircraft.
(HN, 3/20/99)

1923 Mar 20, Bavarian minister
of Interior refused to forbid the Nazi SA. [NOTE: The Sturmabteilung
SA, German for "Assault Division" and sometimes translated
stormtroopers, functioned as a paramilitary organization of the
NSDAP – the German Nazi party. It played a key role in Adolf
Hitler’s rise to power in the 1930s. SA men were often known as
brown shirts from the color of their uniform and to distinguish them
from the SS who were known as black shirts.]
(MC, 3/20/02)

1924 Mar 20, The Virginia
Legislature passed two closely related eugenics laws: SB 219,
entitled "The Racial Integrity Act" and SB 281, "An ACT to provide
for the sexual sterilization of inmates of State institutions in
certain cases", henceforth referred to as "The Sterilization Act".
The Racial Integrity Act (one drop law) required that a racial
description of every person be recorded at birth, and felonized
marriage between "white persons" and non-white persons. The law was
the most famous ban on miscegenation in the US, and was overturned
by the US Supreme Court in 1967, in Loving v. Virginia. Virginia
repealed the sterilization in 1979. In 2001 the House of Delegates
voted to express regret for the state’s selecting breeding policies
that had forced sterilizations on some 8,000 people. The Senate soon
followed suit.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racial_Integrity_Act_of_1924)(SSFC,
2/4/01, p.A3)(SFC, 2/15/01, p.C16)

1925 Mar 20, John Ehrlichman,
Watergate conspirator, was born in Tacoma, Wa. He served Pres. Nixon
as White House counsel and then domestic advisor and played a key
role in creating the Environmental Protection Agency, passing the
Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, the Endangered Species Act and
the National Environmental Policy Act.
(HN, 3/20/98)(SFC, 2/16/99, p.A18)

1939 Mar 20, Franklin D.
Roosevelt named William O. Douglas to the Supreme Court. He replaced
Louis D. Brandeis (1856-1941), appointed in 1916, who retired.
Douglas left the court in 1975, holding the record as the longest
serving Supreme Court justice.
(HN,
3/20/98)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Brandeis)(Econ,
11/20/10, p.95)

1940 Mar 20, The British RAF
conducted an all-night air raid on the Nazi airbase at Sylt,
Germany.
(HN, 3/20/98)

1942 Mar 20-21, There was a
major German assault on Malta.
(MC, 3/20/02)(MC, 3/21/02)

1943 Mar 20, The Allies
attacked Rommel's forces on the Mareth Line in North Africa.
(HN, 3/20/98)
1943 Mar 20, German U-384 was
bombed and sank.
(MC, 3/20/02)

1944 Mar 20, A bus fell off
bridge into Passaic River, NJ, killing 16.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1944 Mar 20, Pierre Pucheu
(b.1899), French industrialist, fascist and member of the Vichy
government, was executed following his arrest a year earlier in
Casablanca. He was the first of the leading collaborationist figures
to be executed directly under de Gaulle's jurisdiction.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Pucheu)

1948 Mar 20, "Gentleman's
Agreement" won the Academy Award for best picture of 1947, as well
as best director (Elia Kazan); Ronald Colman won best actor for "A
Double Life," and Loretta Young won best actress for "The Farmer's
Daughter."
(AP, 3/20/98)
1948 Mar 20, The 1st live
televised musical Eugene Ormandy on CBS.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1948 Mar 20, A televised
concert by NBC Symphony was conducted by Arturo Toscanini.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1948 Mar 20 A severe tornado
moved through Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma City destroying 52
aircraft.
(SFC, 3/20/09, p.D8)
1948 Mar 20, The Communist
administration of Lithuania decided on a plan for the organization
of collective farms.
(LHC, 3/20/03)

1950 Mar 20, The government of
Poland decided to confiscate the property of Polish church.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1950)

1952 Mar 20, At the Academy
Awards "An American in Paris" was named best picture; Humphrey
Bogart best actor for "The African Queen"; Vivien Leigh best
actress, Kim Hunter best supporting actress and Karl Malden best
supporting actor for "A Streetcar Named Desire"; and George Stevens
best director for "A Place in the Sun."
(AP, 3/20/02)

1953
Mar 20, In the Soviet Union Nikita Khrushchev became the head of a
five-man group called the Secretariat, although for all intents and
purposes, he is in a leadership role that will gradually push
Malenkov aside. In September Khrushchev was officially given the
title of First Secretary of the Communist Party.
(www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=Article&id=2612)(WP,
3/21/53, p.3)

1954 Mar 20, "King and I"
closed at St. James Theater in NYC after 1246 performances.
(MC, 3/20/02)

1957 Mar 20, Shelton 'Spike'
Lee, film director (Do the Right Thing, Malcolm X), was born.
(HN, 3/20/01)
1957 Mar 20, In Washington
state the Dalles Dam pushed back the Columbia River to reap the
benefits of hydroelectric power. In six hours the islands of Celilo
Falls were gone forever beneath a mockingly tranquil reservoir pool.
(AP, 3/3/07)
1957 Mar 20, Britain accepted a
NATO offer to mediate in Cyprus, but Greece rejected it.
(MC, 3/20/02)

1959 Mar 20, In SF Harry
Bridges spoke to a crowd at the Commonwealth Club luncheon regarding
his recent trip to Russia. The Longshore Union president gave his
audience the challenge he received in Russia: Within 10 years the
Soviet Union will give its workers the highest standard of living in
the world, the highest wages, the shortest work week, the best free
medical care, the best education, and no unemployment.
(SSFC, 3/15/09, DB p.50)

1969 Mar 20, Senator Edward
Kennedy called on the U.S. to close all bases in Taiwan.
(HN, 3/20/98)
1969 Mar 20, The Chicago 8 were
indicted in aftermath of Chicago Democratic convention.
(www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/1996/conventions/chicago/facts/chicago68/index.shtml)
1969 Mar 20, John Lennon
married Yoko Ono in Gibraltar.
(AP, 3/20/97)(HN, 3/20/98)

1976 Mar 20, Newspaper heiress
Patricia Hearst was convicted of armed robbery for her part in a San
Francisco bank holdup.
(AP, 3/20/97)(HN, 3/20/98)

1977 Mar 20, Voters in Paris
chose former French Prime Minister Jacques Chirac to be the French
capital's first mayor in more than a century.
(AP, 3/20/97)
1977 Mar 20, Premier Indira
Gandhi lost her election in India.
(http://openweb.tvnews.vanderbilt.edu/1977-3/1977-03-20-CBS-2.html)

1979 Mar 20, In Rome, Italy,
the Mafia killed Mino Pecorelli, a magazine editor. In 1996 Premier
Giulio Andreotti went on trial for allegedly turning to the Mafia to
kill the troublesome journalist. Andreotti was acquitted by a jury
in 1999. 5 others were also acquitted. In 2002 an appeal court in
Perugia sentenced Giulio Andreotti to 24 years imprisonment for
ordering the murder of Pecorelli.
(http://foi.missouri.edu/jouratrisk/italysexpm.html)(SFC, 4/12/96,
p.A-12)(SFC, 9/25/99, p.A14)

1981 Mar 20, Michael Donald
(b.1962), a black teenager in Mobile, Alabama, was abducted,
tortured and killed in what prosecutors charged was a Ku Klux Klan
plot. Henry Hays (d.1997) murdered Michael Donald in a random
abduction. Donald was beaten, cut, strangled and his body was strung
up a tree. Hays was convicted and sentenced to death. He was
executed Jun 6, 1997. In 1987 A wrongful death suit filed by
Donald’s mother, Beulah Mae Donald, gave a $7 million verdict
against the United Klans of America, led by Robert Shelton (d.2003
at 73).
(SFC, 6/6/97,
p.A3)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Donald)(SFC, 1/21/02,
p.A21)
1981 Mar 20, Former girls’
school headmistress Jean Harris (1923-2012) was sentenced in White
Plains, New York, to 15 years to life in prison for slaying
"Scarsdale Diet" author Dr. Herman Tarnower. Harris was released in
1993 following a grant of clemency by Gov. Mario M. Cuomo.
(AP, 3/20/01)(SFC, 12/29/12, p.A9)

1982 Mar 20, U.S. scientists
returned from Antarctica with the first land mammal fossils found
there.
(HN, 3/20/98)

1984 Mar 20, An indictment was
unsealed against Denny McLain, former Detroit Tiger pitching star,
on various charges of racketeering. McLain was named in all
the indictment's five counts, which accused him of racketeering,
conspiracy, extortion, possession and distribution of cocaine, and
conspiracy to import cocaine. He would face up to 90 years in prison
if convicted of all the charges.
(http://tinyurl.com/35zuwx)

1987 Mar 20, The Food and Drug
Administration approved the sale of AZT, a drug shown to prolong the
lives of some AIDS patients. Jerome Horwitz of the Barbara Ann
Karmanos Cancer Institute and Wayne State University School of
Medicine first synthesized AZT in 1964 under a US National
Institutes of Health (NIH) grant. It was developed by
Burroughs-Welcome (later part of GlaxoSmithKline).
(WSJ, 1/30/96, p.A-16)(AP,
3/20/97)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zidovudine)(Econ, 6/2/12,
p.80)

1988 Mar 20, David Henry
Hwang's "M. Butterfly" premiered in NYC.
(http://tinyurl.com/pztxh)
1988 Mar 20, Eight-year-old
DeAndra Anrig found herself airborne when the string of her kite was
snagged by an airplane flying over Shoreline Park in Mountain View,
Calif. Not seriously hurt, she was lifted 10 feet off the ground and
carried 100 feet until she let go.
(AP, 3/20/98)

1990 Mar 20, Namibia became an
independent nation, marking the end of 75 years of South African
rule. The South African colony gained independence after 25 years of
guerrilla war. Namibians began petitioning the U.N. as early as
1947, developing political parties, most notably SWAPO (South West
Africa People‘s Organization) to voice opposition to South African
rule. Armed resistance to South African rule began in earnest in the
1970s and continued into the 1980s, which combined with drought and
other factors, contributed to an overwhelming drain to South
Africa‘s economy. The UN Security Council eventually demanded
independence for Namibia, but transition elections were not agreed
to by South Africa until December 1988 after a military disaster
involving Angola. The UN Transition Assistance Group (UNTAG) started
work in April 1989 with elections giving SWAPO 57% of the vote. On
March 21 of the following year, the South African flag was lowered
and the Namibian flag raised in Namibia‘s National Stadium.
(LVRJ, 11/1/97, p.20A)(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.T4)(AP,
3/20/00)(HNQ, 2/13/01)
1990 Mar 20, The last Indian
peacekeepers left Sri Lanka.
(www.india-seminar.com/1999/479/479%20mehta.htm)

1991 Mar 20, Pres. Bush
announced the US would reduce Poland’s indebtedness by a full 70%.
The Paris Club, an informal grouping of the world's 17 leading
industrial countries, announced a week earlier that it would halve
Poland's enormous debt and reduce accumulated interest by 80
percent. The US portion of the forgiven debt was approximately $2.4
billion.
(http://dosfan.lib.uic.edu/erc/briefing/dispatch/1991/html/Dispatchv2no12.html)
1991 Mar 20, The US Supreme
Court ruled employers could not adopt “fetal protection" policies
barring women of child-bearing age from certain hazardous jobs.
(AP, 3/20/01)
1991 Mar 20, A US jet fighter
shot down an Iraqi warplane in the first air attack since the Gulf
War cease-fire.
(AP, 3/20/01)
1991 Mar 20, April Glaspie, the
US ambassador to Iraq, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee
Saddam Hussein had lied to her by denying he would invade Kuwait.
(AP, 3/20/01)

1992 Mar 20, The US Congress
passed, and President Bush immediately vetoed, a Democratic tax cut
for the middle class that would have been funded by a tax hike on
the rich.
(AP, 3/20/97)

1994 Mar 20, El Salvador held
its first presidential election following the country's 12-year-old
civil war. Armando Calderon Sol of the ARENA party led the vote, but
needed to win a run-off to achieve the presidency.
(AP, 3/20/99)
1994 Mar 20, Ilaria Alpi (32),
Italian journalist, was shot and killed in Somalia along with her
cameraman, Miran Hrovatin, on the same day that Italian troops left
the country. She had collected evidence of brutality by Italian
officers against Somalis along with evidence of illegal gun-running.
(SFC, 1/26/98, p.A8)

1996 Mar 20, A jury in Los
Angeles convicted Erik and Lyle Menendez of first-degree murder in
the shotgun slayings of their millionaire parents.
(AP, 3/20/97)
1996 Mar 20, The Mt. Zion
Baptist Church in Ruleville, Miss., burned down. Arson was suspected
and investigations by the FBI and ATF were later begun.
(SFC, 6/11/96, p.A16)
1996 Mar 20, The British
government said that a rare brain disease that had killed 10 people
was probably linked to so-called "mad cow disease."
(AP, 3/20/97)

1997 Mar 20, Bill Clinton and
Boris Yeltsin met in Helsinki for talks on arms control and NATO
expansion. They agreed to negotiate a new arms accord to reduce
strategic warheads, and to give Russia a more formal role in the
Group of Seven leading industrialized nations.
(WSJ, 3/21/97, p.A1)(SFC, 3/22/97, p.A1)(AP,
3/20/98)
1997 Mar 20, The Liggett Group,
a tobacco company, agreed to settle claims with 22 state attorneys
general. The settlement included a payment of 25% of pretax earnings
over the next 25 years, a “smoking is addictive" label, access to
documents heretofore claimed to be privileged and admitting the
industry marketed cigarettes to teen-agers.
(WSJ, 3/20/97, p.A3)(WSJ, 3/21/97, p.A3)(AP,
3/20/98)
1997 Mar 20, A Houston jury
awarded the MMAR Group, a bond firm, $222.7 million in a libel
verdict against Dow Jones & Co. based on a 1993 article that
portrayed the firm as reckless and destroyed its business.
(SFC, 3/21/97, p.A3)
1997 Mar 20, In Serbia the
state telecommunications authority cut independent BK TV’s
transmission lines from Belgrade. Hours later a Belgrade court
ordered the authority and state-run TV to carry BK.
(SFC, 3/22/97, p.A10)

1998 Mar 20, President
Clinton's lawyer, appearing before a federal court, declared that
Paula Jones' evidence of sexual harassment was "garbage" unworthy of
a trial.
(AP, 3/20/99)
1998 Mar 20, The Wall Street
Journal published its first Friday cultural section, “Weekend
Journal."
(WSJ, 3/20/98, p.W1)
1998 Mar 20, George Tenet,
director of the CIA, disclosed that $26.7 billion was the 1998
budget secret intelligence activities, one-tenth the overall US
military budget.
(SFC, 3/21/98, p.A4)
1998 Mar 20, An Indiana man,
Chris Dean (35), was arrested for sending the pipe bomb that killed
Christopher Marquis of Vermont. Marquis had defrauded Dean in a $400
trade of Citizens Band radio equipment arranged on the Internet.
(SFC, 3/21/98, p.A3)
1998 Mar 20, A twister killed
11 people in northeast Georgia and 2 people in North Carolina and
injured 100.
(SFC, 3/21/98, p.A1)(AP, 3/20/99)
1998 Mar 20, At least 400
firefighters were sent to fight the fires in the northern Amazon.
Firefighters from Argentina and Venezuela were also brought in. A UN
offer of assistance was accepted Mar 23 to combat thousands of fires
raging out of control.
(SFC, 3/21/98, p.A10)(WSJ, 3/23/98, p.A1)(SFC,
3/25/98, p.C14)
1998 Mar 20, In Germany
thousands of protestors attempted to halt a train of atomic waste
from southern Germany from reaching its final destination of Ahaus
in northern Germany.
(SFC, 3/21/98, p.A10)
1998 Mar 20, In Mexico a new
law, the Nationality Act, went into effect that allowed Mexican-born
Americans and their children to hold Mexican nationality and US
citizenship. The law permitted dual nationality but not dual
citizenship.
(SFC, 3/21/98, p.A10)

1999 Mar 20, Balloonists
Bertrand Piccard of Switzerland and Brian Jones of Britain became
the first aviators to fly a hot-air balloon around the world
nonstop. They established an around the world record after floating
over Mauritania at 1:54 a.m. PST and won a $1 million prize from
Anheuser-Busch as the first aviators to fly a hot-air balloon around
the world nonstop.
(SFEC, 3/21/99, p.A21)(AP, 3/20/00)
1999 Mar 20, A war crimes
tribunal at the Hague recommended that 3 Croatian generals be
indicted for war crimes for "Operation Storm" in Aug, 1995.
(SFEC, 3/21/99, p.A17)
1999 Mar 20, In Paris thousands
of French teachers marched to demand a greater say in educational
reform.
(SFEC, 3/21/99, p.A22)
1999 Mar 20, Serb forces in
Kosovo launched a new offensive along a 20-mile arc west and
northwest of Pristina. The Yugoslav army, taking advantage of the
departure of international monitors from Kosovo, launched a furious
offensive against outgunned ethnic Albanian rebels.
(SFEC, 3/21/99, p.A1)(AP, 3/20/00)
1999 Mar 20, In Spain some
60,000 people marched in Bilbao to protest recent arrests of members
and supporters of the ETA.
(SFEC, 3/21/99, p.A23)

2000 Mar 20, World Citizenship
Day.
(SFC, 3/21/00, p.A18)
2000 Mar 20, The Clinton
administration moved to phase out the fuel additive MTBE to avoid
further contamination of groundwater.
(SFC, 3/21/00, p.A1)
2000 Mar 20, Pres. Clinton
stopped in Bangladesh, but only stood for a reception at the US
Embassy due to security reasons. This was the first such visit by an
American president.
(SFC, 3/21/00, p.A14)(AP, 3/20/01)
2000 Mar 20, Former Black
Panther Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, once known as H. Rap Brown, was
captured in Alabama; he was wanted in the fatal shooting of a Fulton
County, Georgia, sheriff’s deputy. Al-Amin maintains his innocence.
(AP, 3/20/01)
2000 Mar 20, Some 2,000
farmers, ranchers and rural businessmen converged on Washington DC
to lobby for an overhaul of farm programs and to strengthen
antitrust enforcement on agribusiness.
(WSJ, 3/21/00, p.A1)
2000 Mar 20, In Texas Robert
Wayne Harris (28) shot 5 people to death and critically injured one
person at the Mi-T-Fine Car Wash in Irving. Harris was arrested the
next day. He had recently been fired for exposing himself to 2 women
at the business. Harris was sentenced to death on Sep 29.
(SFC, 3/21/00, p.A5)(SFC, 3/22/00, p.A4)(SFC,
9/30/00, p.A2)
2000 Mar 20, Natalya Estemirova
(1959-2009), Chechen rights activist, went to the village of Aldi
and counted 47 victims.
(Econ, 7/18/09, p.24)
2000 Mar 20, Pope John Paul II
arrived in Jordan for the beginning of his Holy land tour. He prayed
at Mt. Nebo where the bible says Moses first viewed the Promised
Land.
(WSJ, 3/20/00, p.A1)(SFC, 3/21/00, p.A1)
2000 Mar 20, In Germany Angela
Merkel (45) became the first woman to head the Christian Democratic
Union.
(SFC, 3/21/00, p.A10)
2000 Mar 20, In Kashmir gunmen
massacred 35 Sikhs in Chati Sionghpura Mattan.
(SFC, 3/21/00, p.A12)
2000 Mar 20, In the Philippines
the Abu Sayyaf Muslim rebel group seized over 50 hostages from 2
schools in Basilan province. Most of the hostages were children.
(SFC, 4/18/00, p.A10)
2000 Mar 20, In Senegal Pres.
Abdou Diouf conceded defeat to rival Abdoulaye Wade. The elections
ended 40 years of Socialist Party rule.
(SFC, 3/21/00, p.A12)

2001 Mar 20, Pres. Bush met
with Israel’s Ariel Sharon and urged him avoid provocative acts.
(SFC, 3/21/01, p.A12)
2001 Mar 20, The skipper of the
USS Greeneville took the stand in a Navy court and accepted sole
responsibility for the Feb. 9 collision of his submarine with a
Japanese trawler off Hawaii that killed nine Japanese.
(AP, 3/20/02)
2001 Mar 20, New York native
Lori Berenson, accused of aiding guerrillas in Peru, received a
retrial in civilian court. She was later convicted of "terrorist
collaboration."
(AP, 3/20/02)
2001 Mar 20, The US Federal
Reserve lowered interest rates 0.5% but stocks dropped. The DJIA
fell 238 to 9,720; the Nasdaq fell 93 to 1,857.
(SFC, 3/21/01, p.A1)
2001 Mar 20, Power-strapped
California saw a second day of rolling blackouts.
(AP, 3/20/02)
2001 Mar 20, Now-Ruz, the
traditional Afghan New Year, passed without fanfare. The holiday is
also observed in Iran.
(SSFC, 3/18/01, p.A17)
2001 Mar 20, In Buenos Aires
thousands demonstrated against plans to cut government spending.
Domingo Cavallo was named to succeed Ricardo Lopez Murphy as economy
minister.
(SFC, 3/21/01, p.A14)
2001 Mar 20, The damaged
Brazilian P-36 Petrobras oil platform sank 75 miles offshore.
400,000 gallons of fuel and crude oil began leaking into the sea. An
immediate revenue loss of $50 million per month was expected.
(SFC, 3/21/01, p.A12)(WSJ, 3/21/00, p.A1)
2001 Mar 20, Britain reported
46 new confirmed cases of foot-and-mouth disease, the largest daily
number to date.
(SFC, 3/21/01, p.A14)
2001 Mar 20, In Haiti violence
flared in Port-au-Prince as Aristide supporters attacked an
opposition party office with firebombs.
(SFC, 3/21/01, p.A13)
2001 Mar 20, Liberia ordered
its security forces to seal its border with Sierra Leone.
(SFC, 3/21/01, p.A14)
2001 Mar 20, In Macedonia
security forces began a heavy attack against guerrilla fighters and
issued an ultimatum that weapons be laid down.
(SFC, 3/21/01, p.12)
2001 Mar 20, In Spain Froilan
Elespe, Socialist deputy mayor of Lasarte, was shot and killed. The
ETA was blamed.
(SFC, 3/21/01, p.A14)
2001 Mar 20, In South Africa
new AIDS statistics indicated that 25% of the adult population, one
of every 9 people, was infected with HIV.
(SFC, 3/21/01, p.A13)

2002 Mar 20, The US Senate
approved the bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002. It was better
remembered as the McCain-Feingold bill on campaign finance reform
after its senatorial sponsors. Pres. Bush planned to sign it. In
2003 a 3-judge panel ruled most of the provisions unconstitutional.
(SFC, 3/21/02, p.A1)(SFC, 5/3/03, p.A1)(Econ,
9/12/09, p.40)
2002 Mar 20, US began war games
with South Korea, the biggest ever.
(WSJ, 3/21/02, p.A1)
2002 Mar 20, Arthur Andersen
pleaded innocent to charges it had shredded documents and deleted
computer files related to Enron. Andersen was later found guilty of
obstruction of justice; it received probation and was fined
$500,000.
(AP, 3/20/07)
2002 Mar 20, Heavy storms and
severe flooding extended to West Virginia. Kentucky Gov. Paul Patton
declared 12 counties emergencies.
(SFC, 3/21/02, p.A3)
2002 Mar 20, At Fort Drum, NY,
a soldier was killed and 14 were injured when 2 artillery shells
fell far short of their target.
(SFC, 3/21/02, p.A5)
2002 Mar 20, In Bosnia the US
Embassy was shut down to the public due to a possible terrorist
threat.
(SSFC, 3/24/02, p.A18)
2002 Mar 20, Steven Harper
(b.1959), an evangelical Christian, was chosen as head of Canada’s
conservative Alliance Party.
(Econ, 10/14/06,
p.42)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Alliance)
2002 Mar 20, China deployed
military police to at least 2 northeast cities to quell labor
protests.
(WSJ, 3/21/02, p.A1)
2002 Mar 20, In Israel a
suicide bomber blew himself up on a crowded bus and 7 people were
killed. The Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility.
(SFC, 3/20/02, p.A1)(SFC, 3/21/02, p.A9)
2002 Mar 20, In Italy 928
illegal immigrants, mostly ethnic Kurds, arrived on a rusty cargo
ship. A state of emergency was declared to deal with the problem.
(SFC, 3/21/02, p.A10)
2002 Mar 20, In Pakistan Gen.
Musharraf met with members of the Muslim League and planned a
referendum to support his rule for another 5 years. Civilian
opposition leaders condemned the plan.
(SFC, 3/23/02, p.A13)
2002 Mar 20, In Lima, Peru, a
car bomb explosion outside the US Embassy killed 9 people. Pres.
Bush was scheduled to arrive 3 days later.
(SFC, 3/21/02, p.A8)(SFC, 3/22/02, p.A13)
2002 Mar 20, In Zimbabwe
opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai was charged with treason,
fingerprinted and released on bail.
(SFC, 3/21/02, p.A10)

2003 Mar 20, Operation Iraqi
Freedom began with a few targeted strikes in Baghdad against Saddam
Hussein, targeting him personally with a barrage of cruise missiles
and bombs as a prelude to invasion. Iraq responded hours later,
firing missiles toward American troops positioned just across its
border with Kuwait. US Sec. of State Rumsfeld warned that the attack
in Iraq would be "of a force and scope and scale that is beyond what
has been seen before." A "shock and awe" strategy was planned based
on a 1996 "rapid dominance" strategy. The US seized $1.74 billion in
frozen Iraqi assets and declared it would be used for humanitarian
purposes. Saddam Hussein appeared on state-run television accusing
the United States of a "shameful crime" and urging his people to
"draw your sword" against the invaders. Iraq set fire to at least 10
oil wells.
(SFC, 3/20/03, p.W1)(SFC, 3/21/03,
p.W11)(WSJ, 3/21/03, p.A1)(AP, 3/20/04)
2003 Mar 20, Hundreds of
thousands of people marched on American embassies in world capitals
to protest the war against Iraq.
(AP, 3/20/03)
2003 Mar 20, Some 600 US and
Romanian ground troops in Afghanistan began Operation Valiant
Strike, an intensified search for Taliban, al Qaeda and loyalists to
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.
(SSFC, 3/23/03, p.A1)
2003 Mar 20, Tornadoes hit
rural Georgia and 6 people were killed.
(SFC, 3/21/03, p.A7)
2003 Mar 20, Texas executed its
300th inmate since restoring the death penalty in 1982.
(WSJ, 3/21/03, p.A1)
2003 Mar 20, In the Central
African Republic Gen. Francois Bozizea asked his fighters to hand
over their weapons to troops from neighboring Chad, prompting the
insurgents to accuse their leader of betraying them.
(AP, 3/21/03)
2003 Mar 20, China demanded
that military action against Iraq stop immediately and said the
initial attack was "violating the norms of international behavior."
(AP, 3/20/03)
2003 Mar 20, Fidel Castro's
agents arrested some of the government's leading critics in a
crackdown on dissidents accused of working with US diplomats to
undermine Cuba's socialist system. Jail sentences of over 20 years
were later imposed on 75 of the dissidents.
(AP, 3/21/03)(Econ, 1/4/14, p.11)
2003 Mar 20, The Czech Interior
Ministry published a list of some 75,000 people identified as agents
of the former communist secret police, the STB.
(AP, 3/20/03)
2003 Mar 20, Norwegian police
arrested Mullah Krekar, the leader of a Kurdish guerrilla group
suspected of links to al-Qaida, on kidnapping charges. After
settling in Norway in 1991, Krekar founded the Kurdish Ansar
al-Islam during visits to Iraq.
(AP, 3/20/03)(AP, 2/14/12)
2003 Mar 20, The Palestinian
Authority broke up a Hamas training session and a firefight followed
that killed one militant.
(SFC, 3/21/03, p.A15)
2003 Mar 20, In Serbia nearly
1,000 people were arrested in a crackdown on criminal groups
following the assassination of Serbian PM Zoran Djindjic.
(AP, 3/20/03)
2003 Mar 20, A suspected Tamil
Tiger rebel boat attacked and sank a vessel carrying Chinese
fishermen off eastern Sri Lanka, killing 17 people on board.
(AP, 3/21/03)
2003 Mar 20, Turkey's
parliament approved a motion allowing over-flights for US warplanes.
Turkey announced plans to send thousands of troops into
Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq.
(AP, 3/20/03)
2003 Mar 20, UN Sec. Gen'l.
Kofi Annan asked to be put in charge of a humanitarian program to
aid Iraq.
(SFC, 3/21/03, p.W14)
2003 Mar 20-Apr 9, At least
1,700 Iraqi civilians were killed and over 8,000 injured in the
battle for Baghdad.
(SSFC, 5/18/03, p.A1)

2004 Mar 20, The US military
charged 6 soldiers with abusing inmates at Abu Ghraib prison.
(AP, 3/20/05)
2004 Mar 20, The Rev. Karen
Dammann, a lesbian Methodist pastor, was acquitted of violating
church doctrine in a trial held in Bothell, Wash.
(AP, 3/20/05)
2004 Mar 20, A quickly
spreading Internet worm destroyed or damaged tens of thousands of
personal computers worldwide morning by exploiting a security flaw
in a firewall program designed to protect PCs from online threats.
The "Witty" worm wrote random data onto the hard drives of computers
equipped with the Black Ice and Real Secure Internet firewall
products. It spread automatically to vulnerable computers without
any action on the part of the user.
(WaP, 3/20/04)
2004 Mar 20, Thousands of
protesters marched in Australia to mark the first anniversary of the
Iraq war. Protests extended across Asia with some 30,000 marching in
Japan. Hundreds of thousands of people worldwide rallied against the
U.S.-led war in Iraq on the first anniversary of the start of the
conflict.
(AP, 3/20/04)
2004 Mar 20, The Economist
reported that a Goldman Sachs study found consumers in Australia and
Spain to be the most vulnerable, of 19 countries, to higher interest
rates or recession.
(Econ, 3/20/04, p.85)
2004 Mar 20, In Guyana
thousands marched through Georgetown, demanding the government order
an independent investigation into claims of a state-sponsored hit
squad blamed for more than 40 killings in the past year.
(AP, 3/20/04)
2004 Mar 20, Hundreds of
thousands of people marched in Rome demanding that Italy pull its
2,600 troops out of Iraq.
(AP, 3/21/04)
2004 Mar 20, In Kashmir a
remote-controlled bomb hidden in a motorbike exploded as an Indian
army convoy passed over a bridge, killing two soldiers and wounding
40 others.
(AP, 3/20/04)
2004 Mar 20, NATO-led forces
surrounded Kosovska Mitrovica in efforts to separate ethnic
Albanians and Serbs and prevent a resurgence of attacks that killed
28 people and wounded 600. Ethnic Albanians looted villages and
apartments abandoned by Serb civilians. Some 110 homes and at least
16 Serb Orthodox churches were destroyed by arson.
(AP, 3/20/04)(Econ, 9/11/04, p.47)
2004 Mar 20, Former Netherlands
Queen Juliana (94), who presided over the dismantling of the
centuries-old Dutch empire and witnessed the birth of a social
revolution during her 32-year reign (1948-1980, died.
(AP, 3/20/04)(SSFC, 3/21/04, p.B7)
2004 Mar 20, Nepalese
government forces killed as many as 500 rebels, and at least 18
police and soldiers died in some of the fiercest fighting since a
cease-fire collapsed last year.
(AP, 3/21/04)
2004 Mar 20, The Pakistani
military commander leading a five-day assault on armed militants
holed up in mud fortresses said a "high-value" terror suspect
remained inside, possibly wounded, but there was no way to know
whether it was al-Qaeda No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahri.
(AP, 3/20/04)
2004 Mar 20, The hunt for
terrorists on Pakistan's frontier appears to be narrowing on an
Uzbek terror group that once trained in Afghanistan.
(AP, 3/20/04)
2004 Mar 20, Taiwan Pres. Chen
Shui-bian narrowly won re-election, a day after being shot in an
assassination attempt, but a referendum he had championed on beefing
up defenses against China failed because not enough voters took
part.
(AP, 3/20/04)(SSFC, 3/21/04, p.A1)
2004 Mar 20, Uganda government
troops backed by helicopter gunships fought fierce battles with
rebels in northern Uganda, killing more than 50 insurgents.
(AP, 3/21/04)

2005 Mar 20, Severe flooding
caused by snowmelt and torrential rains across Afghanistan left
nearly 20 dead and thousands homeless.
(AFP, 3/20/05)
2005 Mar 20, In Bangladesh
about 15,000 people were left homeless after twin tornadoes
simultaneously tore through northern Gaibandha and Rangpur
districts, killing 55 people and wounding 1,000 others.
(SFC, 3/26/05, p.D10)
2005 Mar 20, UN forces raided a
police station occupied by armed former soldiers in Petit-Goave, 45
miles west of Port-au-Prince, setting of a gunbattle that killed two
former soldiers and one Sri Lankan peacekeeper.
(AP, 3/21/05)
2005 Mar 20, Insurgents
targeted Iraqi security forces and government buildings with
gunfire, suicide bomb attacks and mortar rounds, leaving at least
five people dead. A bomb blast near Kirkuk killed a U.S. soldier and
wounded three. US troops killed 26 militants following an attack on
a convoy SE of Baghdad.
(AP, 3/20/05)(AP, 3/21/05)
2005 Mar 20, A magnitude 7.0
earthquake struck off the coast of southern Japan, killing one
person and injuring at least 381 others.
(AP, 3/20/05)
2005 Mar 20, In Jordan an
appeals court has overturned the conviction of a Jordanian found
guilty of financing Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi's insurgent group in Iraq.
The Court of Cassation said the Oct. 31 conviction of Bilal Mansur
al-Hiyari by the military State Security Court "fell short of
adequate justifications and causes."
(AP, 6/7/05)
2005 Mar 20, In Kyrgyzstan
protesters stormed a police station in Jalal-Abad forcing officers
to flee, a day after baton-wielding police evicted demonstrators
from two government buildings they had occupied to protest alleged
election fraud. 4 policemen were reported killed.
(AP, 3/20/05)(WSJ, 3/21/05, p.A1)
2005 Mar 20, A visibly
frustrated Pope John Paul made a brief but silent appearance at his
Vatican apartment window after missing his first Palm Sunday Mass in
26 years as pontiff.
(AP, 3/20/06)

2006 Mar 20, President Bush
defended his Iraq record against skeptical questioning at the City
Club in Cleveland. Protesters marking the third anniversary of the
Iraq war made their voices heard around the world, with the largest
marches in London, Portland and Chicago, though in numbers that were
often lower than in previous years.
(AP, 3/20/06)(AP, 3/20/07)
2006 Mar 20, Paul Tagliabue
announced he would step down as NFL commissioner after 16 years.
(AP, 3/20/07)
2006 Mar 20, In San Diego, Ca.,
Japan’s baseball team beat Cuba 10-6 in the World Baseball Classic.
The US team was embarrassingly knocked out in the second of the four
rounds.
(http://edition.cnn.com/2006/SPORT/03/21/baseball.japan.ap/)
2006 Mar 20, Otto Zehm (36), a
mentally ill man, died after being struck and tasered at a
convenience store in Spokane, Wa. In 2011 officer Karl Thompson was
found guilty of using violating Zehm’s civil rights by using
excessive force and making a false statement.
(SFC, 11/3/11,
p.A6)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_Zehm)
2006 Mar 20, The most powerful
storm to hit Australia in three decades laid waste to its
northeastern coast, mowing down sugar and banana plantations with
180 mph winds but causing no deaths or serious injuries.
(AP, 3/20/06)
2006 Mar 20, Bangladesh PM
Begum Khaleda Zia began her first visit to India in five years.
India and Bangladesh will be trying to rebuild confidence and end
distrust that has crept into their relationship.
(AP, 3/20/06)
2006 Mar 20, European observers
said that Belarus' presidential election did not meet international
standards for a free and fair vote because of widespread detentions
and intimidation.
(AP, 3/20/06)
2006 Mar 20, Save the Children,
a British charity, said some 9 million children in Africa have lost
a mother to AIDS, calling on donors to sharply increase aid to meet
their needs.
(AP, 3/20/06)
2006 Mar 20, A Chinese cargo
ship hit an anchored freighter and sank off South Korea's west
coast, killing at least three Chinese crew members.
(AP, 3/20/06)
2006 Mar 20, In Ecuador police
fired tear gas at dozens of Indian demonstrators trying to reach the
government palace in Quito to protest free-trade talks with
Washington.
(AP, 3/20/06)
2006 Mar 20, Chairman Michael
Dell, speaking in Bangalore, India, said Dell Inc. plans to double
the number of its employees in India to 20,000 in three years.
(AP, 3/20/06)
2006 Mar 20, Suspected
insurgents killed least seven policemen with roadside bombs on the
third anniversary of the US-led invasion of Iraq, and authorities
reported finding 10 more bullet-riddled bodies dumped in the
capital. One was that of a 13-year-old girl. Insurgents and
sectarian gangs killed at least 39 people.
(AP, 3/20/06)(SFC, 3/21/06, p.F7)
2006 Mar 20, Millions of Shiite
pilgrims, some of them flogging themselves with chains, surrounded a
shrine in the holy city of Karbala to commemorate the 40th and final
day of symbolic mourning for the Prophet Muhammad's grandson.
(AP, 3/20/06)
2006 Mar 20, Libyan leader
Moamer Kadhafi said Saddam Hussein should still be considered Iraq's
legal president and the current government illegitimate as it was
elected under an occupation regime.
(AFP, 3/20/06)
2006 Mar 20, In Nepal About
1,000 pro-democracy activists marched in Kathmandu demanding King
Gyanendra free political detainees and give up powers he seized last
year.
(AP, 3/20/06)
2006 Mar 20, Palestinian gunmen
from the ousted Fatah Party stormed government buildings, briefly
took over a power plant and blocked a vital road in the Gaza Strip,
injecting more chaos into the volatile area as Hamas militants
readied to take power.
(AP, 3/20/06)
2006 Mar 20, Turkmenistan's
President Saparmurat Niyazov told his nation's youth to read his
book Rukhnama three times a day in order to go to heaven.
(AP, 3/20/06)
2006 Mar 20, Venezuela agreed
to sell fuel under preferential terms to an El Salvador association
created by a group of leftist mayors.
(AP, 3/20/06)

2007 Mar 20, Pres. Bush vowed
that his top aides will not testify under oath before congressional
committees on the scandal involving the firing of 8 US attorneys.
(SFC, 3/21/07, p.A1)
2007 Mar 20, In Arizona the
Hualapai Indian tribe invited a select few to the unveiling of the
horseshoe-shaped deck over the Grand Canyon in advance of a public
opening planned for March 28. Tour packages with deck access will
range in price from $49.95 to $199. The deck, which juts 70 feet
beyond the canyon's edge, will accommodate up to 120 guests at a
time.
(AP, 3/21/07)
2007 Mar 20, Rescuers found
Michael Auberry, a 12-year-old Boy Scout, who was dehydrated and
disoriented after four days in the wooded mountains of North
Carolina.
(AP, 3/20/08)
2007 Mar 20, The second flight
of Space Exploration Technologies' (SpaceX) low-cost Falcon 1 rocket
reached 200 miles altitude but did not make it to orbit due to the
premature shutdown of its second-stage Kestrel engine. SpaceX
launched the two-stage Falcon 1 rocket from its Omelek Island launch
site in the Marshall Islands, but the rocket failed to reach its
intended 425-mile (685-kilometer) orbit due to a roll control
glitch.
(http://spaceflightnow.com/falcon/f2/)
2007 Mar 20, The WWF
conservation group said climate change, pollution, over extraction
of water and development are killing some of the world's most famous
rivers including China's Yangtze, India's Ganges and Africa's Nile.
(AP, 3/20/07)
2007 Mar 20, The African Union
urged the UN Security Council to back a peace deal signed between
Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo and the opposition by gradually
pulling its troops out of the country.
(AP, 3/20/07)
2007 Mar 20, Authorities in
emergency-ruled Bangladesh said they have found "huge" amounts of
undisclosed money in the bank accounts of dozens of prominent
figures caught up in a major anti-graft drive.
(AP, 3/20/07)
2007 Mar 20, The British
government said schools have the right to ban students from wearing
Muslim veils if teachers believe the garments affect safety or
pupils' learning. Britain ordered its military to stop using cluster
bombs that lack self-destruct mechanisms in a decision intended to
prevent the weapons, used as recently as the beginning of the Iraq
war, from harming civilians.
(AP, 3/20/07)
2007 Mar 20, An explosion
aboard the HMS Tireless, a nuclear-powered Royal Navy submarine
under an Arctic ice cap, killed two British sailors and injured a
crewmember.
(AP, 3/21/07)
2007 Mar 20, China approved
four foreign banks to begin local currency services to individual
Chinese customers, opening up access to the country's 30 trillion
yuan ($4 trillion; 3 euros trillion) in household savings and
surging demand for credit cards and other financial services.
(AP, 3/20/07)
2007 Mar 20, Ecuador's
constitutional crisis took a new twist as alternate lawmakers were
escorted into Congress under the cover of darkness and sworn in to
replace some of the legislators fired by the country's highest
electoral court.
(AP, 3/20/07)
2007 Mar 20, Guatemala police
arrested 4 people on suspicion of being among those who orchestrated
the killings of three Salvadoran politicians and their driver in Feb
19.
(AP, 3/21/07)
2007 Mar 20, Taha Yassin
Ramadan (69), Saddam Hussein's former deputy, was hanged before
dawn, the fourth man to be executed in the killings of 148 Shiites
following a 1982 assassination attempt against the former leader in
the town of Dujail. At least 15 people were killed or found dead,
most in Baghdad, as the war entered its fifth year. Iraqi and US
troops backed by American warplanes battled al-Qaida-linked
insurgents for more than five hours in clashes in Amiriyah, near
Fallujah, that left eight killed and five Iraqi policemen wounded.
(AP, 3/20/07)(AP, 3/21/07)
2007 Mar 20, Ali Mussa Dakdouk,
a senior Lebanese Hezbollah operative, was captured in southern
Iraq.
(AP, 7/2/07)
2007 Mar 20, Heavy rains
triggered landslides that buried three homes in Pakistan's portion
of Kashmir, leaving 31 people dead.
(AP, 3/21/07)
2007 Mar 20, A US diplomat met
with the Palestinian finance minister, the first American contact
with the new Palestinian government and a sign of a break in policy
between Israel and its closest ally.
(AP, 3/20/07)
2007 Mar 20, In Peru 3
suspected leftist rebels were shot to death in a clash with troops
in the highland jungle.
(AP, 3/20/07)
2007 Mar 20, Fire swept through
a nursing home in southern Russia after the night watchman ignored
two alarms, killing 62 people in the Azov Sea coast village of
Kamyshevatskaya, where the closest fire station was nearly an hour's
drive away.
(AP, 3/20/07)
2007 Mar 20, The commander of
African Union forces in Somalia pleaded for reinforcements as the
AU's security chief paid a flying visit to volatile Mogadishu.
(AFP, 3/20/07)
2007 Mar 20, The Madrid
government said El Hierro, one of the smallest of Spain's Canary
Islands, is to receive 100 percent of its electricity supply from
renewable energy sources.
(AFP, 3/20/07)
2007 Mar 20, Russia confirmed
that it has begun pulling out experts from the Iranian nuclear power
plant they were helping build and that it is withholding nuclear
fuel for Iran’s reactors.
(SFC, 3/21/07, p.A3)
2007 Mar 20, Nyamko Sabuni
(37), a Congolese immigrant and Sweden's first black minister, said
the oppression of women and girls in the name of family honor has
become an urgent problem in Sweden with the arrival of growing
numbers of immigrants over the past few years.
(AP, 3/20/07)
2007 Mar 20, Zambian President
Levy Mwanawasa urged southern Africa to take a new approach to
Zimbabwe, which he likened to a "sinking Titanic" as millions flee
economic and political turmoil.
(Reuters, 3/21/07)

2008 Mar 20, The X Prize
Foundation and sponsor Progressive Casualty Insurance Co. offered
$10 million to the teams that can produce the most production-ready
vehicles that get 100 miles per gallon or more.
(AP, 3/20/08)
2008 Mar 20, North Carolina
lawmakers voted 109-5 to boot Rep. Thomas Wright, a Wilmington
Democrat, from office for mishandling $340,000 in loans and
contributions.
(SFC, 3/21/08, p.A4)
2008 Mar 20, In North Carolina
Darryl Turner was killed after being shocked by a police officer’s
Taser. In 2011 a jury ordered Taser Int’l. to pay Turner’s family
$10 million. Lawyers said the company had failed to warn that a
Taser shot near the heart poses a substantial risk of cardiac
arrest.
(SFC, 7/21/11, p.A6)(http://tinyurl.com/3homyou)
2008 Mar 20, In southern
Afghanistan security forces said an exchange of fire between British
soldiers and police left a policeman dead and two men wounded from
each side. A soldier with the NATO-led force died after being struck
by a bomb.
(AFP, 3/20/08)(AP, 3/21/08)
2008 Mar 20, Flemish Christian
Democrat Yves Leterme took over as Belgian prime minister, ending
nine months of deadlock.
(AP, 3/20/08)
2008 Mar 20, Brazilian
officials said an outbreak of dengue in Rio de Janeiro state has
killed at least 47 people this year.
(SFC, 3/21/08, p.A4)
2008 Mar 20, The Bank of
England said it would inject 5.0 billion pounds into short-term
money markets every week until April 9.
(AP, 3/20/08)
2008 Mar 20, China sent
additional troops into restive areas and made more arrests in the
Tibetan capital Lhasa in an effort to suppress anti-government
protests even as the Dalai Lama offered face-to-face negotiations
with Chinese leaders. Tibet authorities said they had arrested
dozens of people involved in a wave of anti-Chinese violence. China
forced the last remaining foreign journalists out of Tibet, and
stepped up restrictions on Internet and radio reports from people
within the country.
(AP, 3/20/08)(Reuters, 3/20/08)(AP, 3/21/08)
2008 Mar 20, Cuba issued what
appears to be the first public report on prices and inflation in the
private sector, in an unusually realistic acknowledgment of the key
role the informal economy plays in island life.
(AP, 3/21/08)
2008 Mar 20, Israeli defense
officials announced they've worked out a tentative deal for Egypt to
become the main electricity supplier to the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 3/20/08)
2008 Mar 20, In Mali clashes
began around Tinzaouatene, near the Algerian border, as insurgents
attacked soldiers clearing mines in what the rebels feared was a
prelude to a government offensive. 3 soldiers were killed when their
vehicle was blown up by a mine and four captured in combat by the
rebels.
(AFP, 3/23/08)
2008 Mar 20, Mozambican
President Armando Guebuza dismissed the head of the armed forces and
his deputy, barely a week after firing three senior ministers.
(AFP, 3/21/08)
2008 Mar 20, Fidelis Omeni, an
environment ministry official said, Nigeria has been suspended from
the International Convention on Trade in Endangered Species (CITES)
for alleged breaches of its provisions.
(AP, 3/20/08)
2008 Mar 20, Kim Yong-Nam,
North Korea's de facto head of state, arrived in Namibia as part of
his goodwill visit to three African nations, which also includes
Angola and Uganda. Namibia and North Korea hoped to strengthen their
economic ties. Kim Yong-Nam warned against countries plundering
resources from poor African countries.
(AFP, 3/20/08)
2008 Mar 20, A suicide car bomb
killed five Pakistani soldiers and wounded nine others near the
Afghan border.
(AP, 3/20/08)
2008 Mar 20, Palestinian
militants accidentally set off a large blast at a Hamas training
base in the central Gaza Strip, killing 2 members of the violent
Islamic group and wounding another.
(AP, 3/20/08)
2008 Mar 20, A Russian air
force Su-25 fighter jet blew up in flight near the Far East city of
Vladivostok and the pilot was killed.
(AP, 3/20/08)
2008 Mar 20, In Sri Lanka
troops, according to a statement the next day, ambushed ethnic Tamil
rebels with a roadside bomb, overran bunkers and engaged in
firefights across the north, killing 29 insurgents.
(AP, 3/21/08)
2008 Mar 20, Turkish warplanes
bombed Kurdish rebel hideouts in northern Iraq.
(AP, 3/20/08)
2008 Mar 20, Morgan Tsvangirai,
Zimbabwe's main opposition leader and presidential candidate in
March 29 general elections, said that the voters' register was
filled with tens of thousands of ghost voters.
(AFP, 3/20/08)

2009 Mar 20, Two US Navy
vessels, a submarine and an amphibious ship, collided during the
early morning hours in the Strait of Hormuz between Iran and the
Arabian peninsula. The USS Hartford, a submarine, and the USS New
Orleans, an amphibious ship, collided. 15 sailors aboard the
Hartford were slightly injured but able to return to duty. No
injuries were reported aboard the New Orleans.
(AP, 3/20/09)
2009 Mar 20, The US Postal
Service said it will reduce management by 15%, offer early
retirement to 150,000 workers and close 6 of 80 district offices in
response to the slowing economy and losses last year of $2.8
billion.
(SFC, 3/21/09, p.A4)
2009 Mar 20, Washington
Mutual's holding company sued federal regulators for billions of
dollars, saying the firesale of the bank's assets to JPMorgan Chase
violated its rights.
(AP, 3/22/09)
2009 Mar 20, Walter Kuhlman
(90), SF Bay Area artist and teacher, died. He was a noted figure in
the postwar Bay Area abstract expressionist movement.
(SFC, 3/30/09, p.B3)
2009 Mar 20, Afghanistan's top
Muslim clerics urged President Hamid Karzai to push ahead with a
proposal for talks with the Taliban that would be mediated by Saudi
Arabia's King Abdullah. In northern Afghanistan 9 policemen and a
district chief were killed in heavy fighting with Taliban
insurgents. 4 Canadian troops and a local interpreter were killed in
two separate explosions. Another NATO soldier was killed in a
"hostile incident" in the south.
(AP, 3/20/09)(AFP, 3/20/09)(Reuters, 3/21/09)
2009 Mar 20, Tens of thousands
of Angolans welcomed Pope Benedict XVI. He urged Angolans to
continue on the path of reconciliation after nearly three decades of
civil war, saying dialogue could overcome all conflict and tension.
(AP, 3/20/09)
2009 Mar 20, China said a new
WTO report rejected the majority of intellectual property complaints
made by the US and broadly backed Beijing's stance against
commercial piracy.
(AP, 3/20/09)
2009 Mar 20, The African Union
suspended Madagascar, the strongest condemnation by the
international community since opposition leader Andry Rajoelina took
power with the support of the army.
(Reuters, 3/20/09)
2009 Mar 20, EU leaders pledged
a 125 billion euros in support for eastern Europe and the IMF after
rejecting calls to plough more taxpayer cash into their own
faltering economies.
(AFP, 3/20/09)
2009 Mar 20, In France several
teenagers were taken into custody after 11 adults were injured in a
pellet gun shooting near a nursery school in Lyon.
(AP, 3/20/09)
2009 Mar 20, Iranian engineer
Majid Kakavand (37) was taken into custody in Paris as he arrived in
Paris from Moscow as part of a European tour with his wife. He was
arrested at the airport under a US warrant suspected of evading
export controls to buy US technology for Iran's military. He was
held in La Sante prison until Aug. 26, then released on condition he
stay in Paris. He faced a Feb. 17 Paris hearing on whether to be
extradited to the United States.
(AP, 1/22/10)
2009 Mar 20, In Iraq followers
of anti-US Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr protested US presence on
the 6th anniversary of the start of the Iraq war. In Baghdad’s
Karrada district a pair of roadside bombs exploded within 10 minutes
of one another wounding 4 police officers and 3 civilians.
(SFC, 3/21/09, p.A3)
2009 Mar 20, Mexico’s central
bank lowered its overnight lending rate by .75 to 6.75%, in response
to the deepening recession.
(WSJ, 3/20/09, p.A5)
2009 Mar 20, The Mexican army
in Saltillo, Coahuila, arrested Sigifrido Najera Talamantes, an
alleged drug trafficker. He was suspected of organizing an attack on
a US consulate as well as the killing of several soldiers in
retaliation for a government crackdown.
(AP, 3/20/09)
2009 Mar 20, North Korea closed
its southern border for the third time in recent days, even as it
told Seoul it would restore a military communications hot line
severed last week.
(AP, 3/20/09)
2009 Mar 20, In Sudan the
Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), a major rebel group in Darfur,
said it had decided to end peace talks with the Sudanese government
until it lets back aid groups expelled from the troubled region.
(AP, 3/20/09)
2009 Mar 20, The UN Security
Council gave a stamp of approval to Somalia's new unity government
and urged increased international aid to African Union (AU)
peacekeepers trying to contain the violence in the lawless country.
(AP, 3/20/09)

2010 Mar 20, The Plastiki, a
boat with hull built of 12,500 plastic bottles, departed from
Sausalito, Ca. to Australia.
(SSFC, 3/21/10, DB p.46)
2010 Mar 20, An estimate of gay
men marrying heterosexual women in China was put at 90% as compared
to 15-20% in the US.
(Econ, 3/20/10, p.48)
2010 Mar 20, In Florida 3
people were killed when a single-engine plane collided with a
kit-built aircraft over Williston.
(SSFC, 3/21/10, p.A9)
2010 Mar 20, British Airways
canceled more than 1,000 flights after its cabin crew launched a
three-day strike, wreaking havoc on the plans of tens of thousands
of passengers just before the busy spring holiday season. .
(AP, 3/20/10)
2010 Mar 20 In Canada a 3rd
deadly avalanche in a week killed 2 French skiers in British
Columbia.
(SFC, 3/22/10, p.A2)
2010 Mar 20, China's capital
woke up to orange-tinted skies as the strongest sandstorm so far
this year hit the country's north, delaying some flights at
Beijing's airport and prompting a dust warning for Seoul.
(AP, 3/20/10)
2010 Mar 20, Croatia and
Slovenia hosted the 1st locally organized conference of the heads of
government of the former Yugoslavia.
(Econ, 4/3/10, p.54)
2010 Mar 20, In Iraq the latest
partial results showed PM al-Maliki's secular Shiite challenger,
former PM Ayad Allawi, pulling ahead again by a slim margin over the
prime minister's coalition in the overall tally. Al-Maliki called on
the election commission overseeing the counting to quickly respond
to requests from political blocs for a recount.
(AP, 3/21/10)
2010 Mar 20, UN chief Ban
Ki-moon, after getting a closer look at some of the Israeli enclaves
scattered across Palestinian-claimed territories, said Israeli
settlement building anywhere on occupied land is illegal and must be
stopped.
(AP, 3/20/10)
2010 Mar 20, Nepal's former PM
Girija Prasad Koirala (86) died. He served five terms, led mass
protests that ended the king's authoritarian rule and was a key
figure in peace negotiations with communist rebels.
(AP, 3/20/10)
2010 Mar 20, Pakistani police
arrested three Taliban militants and seized a bomb-making factory in
the southern city of Karachi.
(AP, 3/20/10)
2010 Mar 20, In Russia
thousands of protesters rallied in several cities to protest the
government's economic policy and demand more political freedoms.
(AP, 3/20/10)
2010 Mar 20, Spanish surgeons
completed the world’s most extensive full-face transplant. It was
the 11th known face transplant in the world. The 24-hour operation
provided a young farmer (30) a new nose, jaw and teeth.
(SFC, 4/24/10, p.A3)(http://tinyurl.com/2fqgwfm)
2010 Mar 20, In Sudan 19
members of the Misseriya tribe and six from the rival Nuwayba tribe
were killed as fighting broke out. More than 20 people were wounded.
(AFP, 3/23/10)
2010 Mar 20, In Togo thousands
of opposition demonstrators took to the streets in the West African
nation to protest presidential election results.
(AP, 3/20/10)

2011 Mar 20, US President
Barack Obama held up emerging powerhouse Brazil as a model of
economic and democratic transformation that leaders in the troubled
Middle East should try to copy.
(AFP, 3/21/11)
2011 Mar 20,
In Florida Christian preacher Terry Jones supervised a burning of
the Koran in front of about 50 people at a church. News of this led
to violent protests in Afghanistan in early April.
(Reuters,
4/2/11)
2011 Mar 20, In Wisconsin
suspect James Cruckson (30) opened fire on police during a standoff
in Fond du Lac killing Officer Craig Birkholz (28). Cruckson was
found dead from an apparently self-inflicted gunshot.
(SFC, 3/21/11, p.A7)
2011 Mar 20, AT&T said it
had agreed to buy T-Mobile USA from Germany's Deutsche Telekom in a
$39-billion blockbuster deal enabling it to overtake Verizon as the
biggest US wireless provider.
(AFP, 3/20/11)
2011 Mar 20, Bahrain's
opposition asked for UN and American intervention in the government
crackdown on the Shiite protests trying to loosen the monarchy's
grip, in a brief protest in the capital that disbanded before police
could arrive to break it up.
(AP, 3/20/11)
2011 Mar 20, Britain said its
air and sea strikes on Libya had been "very successful" and stressed
it was doing everything it could to avoid civilian casualties as it
enforces a UN-sanctioned no-fly zone. at least seven demolished
tanks smoldered in a field 12 miles (20 km) south of Benghazi, many
of them with their turrets and treads blown off. Turkey was blocking
NATO action, which requires agreement by all 28 members of the
alliance.
(AFP, 3/20/11)(AP, 3/21/11)
2011 Mar 20, In Egypt 3 men
kidnapped and raped a woman (24) after stopping a vehicle at gun
point. She was driving with a male relative. In April a military
court in Ismailiya ordered the execution of the three men who were
convicted of the kidnapping and rape. In Qena province Muslim
vigilantes arrested Anwar Mitri (45), a school administrator and
Coptic Christian, for renting a flat to a woman they claimed was a
prostitute and for allegedly having sex with her. Mitri was tried
and had his ear lopped off.
(AFP, 4/11/11)(Econ, 4/2/11, p.21)
2011 Mar 20, Haiti held a
presidential runoff election between Mirlande Manigat, the former
first lady, and Michel "Sweet Micky" Martelly, a star of Haitian
compas music, the top two finishers in a first-round vote in
November. Martelly captured nearly 68 percent of the vote.
(AP, 3/20/11)(AP, 4/5/11)
2011 Mar 20, Japan’s ministry
official Yoshifumi Kaji said that tests found excess amounts of
radioactive elements on canola and chrysanthemum greens, in addition
to spinach. He said the areas where the tainted produce was found
included three prefectures that previously had not recorded such
contamination. Tokyo Electric Power Company said two of the six
reactor units are now safely under control after their fuel storage
pools cooled down. The toll of dead or missing from Japan's worst
natural disaster in almost a century neared 21,000.
(AP, 3/20/11)(Reuters, 3/20/11)(AFP, 3/20/11)
2011 Mar 20, A defiant Moammar
Gadhafi vowed a "long war" after the US and European militaries
blasted his forces with airstrikes and over 100 cruise missiles,
hitting air defenses and at least two major air bases. Despite the
strikes, Gadhafi's troops lashed back, bombarding the rebel-held
city of Misrata with artillery and tanks. Arab League chief Amr
Moussa condemned the "bombardment of civilians" as the death toll
from the Western air strikes rose to 64.
(AP, 3/20/11)(Reuters, 3/20/11)
2011 Mar 20, In Mexico armed
men stole some 157 million pesos, about $13 million, from a cash
transporting company in Oaxaca state.
(AP, 3/21/11)
2011 Mar 20, Thousands of
Moroccans demonstrated in Casablanca, Rabat and other cities calling
for more democracy and social justice despite recent promises of
deep political reform.
(AFP, 3/20/11)
2011 Mar 20, In Nigeria a bomb
carried by two men aboard a motorcycle killed them when it
accidentally exploded in the central city of Jos.
(AFP, 3/20/11)
2011 Mar 20, In Pakistan
explosions triggered a collapse in a coal mine in Baluchistan
province. Officials feared all 52 miners underground at the time of
the accident were dead.
(AP, 3/20/11)(AP, 3/21/11)
2011 Mar 20, Palestinian
militants fired a rocket into southern Israel, while Israeli troops
killed two Palestinians in a fresh wave of violence along the
volatile border with Gaza.
(AP, 3/20/11)
2011 Mar 20, In Saudi Arabia
dozens of Saudi men and women, outnumbered by anti-riot police,
protested outside Riyadh's Interior Ministry, demanding the release
of thousands of detainees held without trial for years.
(AP, 3/20/11)
2011 Mar 20, In Syria more than
100 people were wounded as security forces fired live bullets and
tear gas at thousands of demonstrators in the town of Daraa.
(AFP, 3/20/11)
2011 Mar 20, In Taiwan some
2,000 anti-nuclear protesters demonstrated, demanding an immediate
halt to the construction of an atomic power plant.
(AFP, 3/20/11)
2011 Mar 20, Some 85,000
registered Tibetans across the world began voting for a new leader
to take up the resistance against Chinese rule over their Himalayan
homeland, as the Tibetan parliament-in-exile debated how to handle
the Dalai Lama's resignation from politics.
(AP, 3/20/11)(SFC, 3/21/11, p.A2)
2011 Mar 20, In Yemen tens of
thousands of people joined a funeral procession for protesters
killed by government gunmen and the president's own tribe called on
him to step down, robbing the embattled US-backed leader of vital
support.
(AP, 3/20/11)

2012 Mar 20, Mitt Romney won
the Illinois Republican primary with 47% of the vote compared with
35% for Rick Santorum, 9% for Ron Paul and 8% for Newt Gingrich.
(SFC, 3/21/12, p.A5)
2012 Mar 20, Afghans celebrated
their solar-based new year.
(AFP, 4/15/12)
2012 Mar 20, In northern
Australia a devastating "mini-tornado" tore through the city of
Townsville, ripping roofs off houses, snapping trees in half and
injuring 13 people.
(AP, 3/20/12)
2012 Mar 20, Russian banker
German Gorbuntsov (45) was shot outside his home in east London and
was put into a medically induced coma. Hew was days away from giving
evidence to an investigation into the attempted murder of a former
business associate. His lawyer believed the attack was connected to
an assassination attempt on Gorbuntsov's partner and co-owner of
Konvers Group, Alexander Antonov, in 2009. A bank he owned in
Moldova, Universalbank, was closed down in February and he was
wanted there for financial crimes. The Kommersant business daily
wrote that Gorbuntsov said he himself was a victim of a raider
attack that caused him to lose his stake of more than 70 percent in
Universalbank.
(AFP, 3/24/12)(Reuters, 3/25/12)
2012 Mar 20, A Egyptian court
in Cairo gave suspended one-year sentences to 11 policemen accused
of killing 22 protesters and wounding 44 others during last year’s
uprising that ousted Pres. Mubarek.
(SFC, 3/21/12, p.A2)
2012 Mar 20, In India 15 people
were killed when a train collided with an overcrowded taxi minivan
at an unmanned railroad crossing in northern Uttar Pradesh state.
(AP, 3/20/12)
2012 Mar 20, Iran ushered in
its Persian New Year with a symbolic cannon blast from its flagship
destroyer, and speeches from leaders vowing to fix an economy
suffering under Western sanctions.
(AFP, 3/20/12)
2012 Mar 20, In Iraq a torrent
of bombings and shootings ripped across 20 towns and cities,
targeting police and Shiite pilgrims and killing 52 people with 255
wounded.
(AP, 3/20/12)(AFP, 3/21/12)(Econ, 3/24/12, p.48)
2012 Mar 20, Kenya wildlife
officials said fires raging across Mount Kenya may have been set by
poachers trying to create a diversion from their illegal attacks on
animals.
(SFC, 3/21/12, p.A2)
2012 Mar 20, Malawi police
arrested an opposition lawmaker who is the son of ex-president
Bakili Muluzi, after his supporters torched a police station over
the weekend.
(AFP, 3/20/12)
2012 Mar 20, In northern Mali
an Islamist group led by a Tuareg rebel fighting for autonomy
claimed control of the country's vast northeast, while also vowing
to free dozens of prisoners.
(AFP, 3/20/12)
2012 Mar 20, ECOWAS, a
15-member West African bloc, said it has called on rebels in
northern Mali to lay down their arms and said it would "take all
necessary measures" to support the country's government.
(AFP, 3/20/12)
2012 Mar 20, In Mexico a 7.4
magnitude earthquake was centered near the border between the
southern states of Oaxaca and Guerrero. It damaged hundreds of homes
and sent thousands of people fleeing from swaying office buildings,
yet even after 10 aftershocks there were no reported deaths. 2
people injured in Guerrero state died on March 22.
(AP, 3/21/12)(AP, 3/22/12)
2012 Mar 20, In Nigeria a
spokesman for Islamist group Boko Haram ruled out further talks with
the government after preliminary, indirect contacts aimed at ending
scores of deadly attacks. Abul Qaqa said the government could not be
trusted.
(AP, 3/21/12)
2012 Mar 20, In Nigeria the
Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, a UN Foundation-led
initiative, launched a campaign aimed at preventing deaths due to
toxic smoke from rudimentary cookstoves.
(AFP, 3/20/12)
2012 Mar 20, A Pakistani
parliamentary commission demanded an end to American drone attacks
inside the country and an apology for deadly US airstrikes in
November as part of a review of its near-severed relations with the
United States.
(AP, 3/20/12)
2012 Mar 20, Russia said it is
ready to support a UN resolution endorsing Kofi Annan's plan for
settling the Syrian crisis, signaling it is prepared to raise the
pressure on its old ally.
(AP, 3/20/12)
2012 Mar 20, In Somalia
Al-Qaeda-allied Islamist gunmen seized Dhusamareb, a key central,
driving out the pro-government militia Ahlu Sunna Wal Jamaa, an
Ethiopia-backed force who follow Somalia's traditional Sufi branch
of Islam. Shebab fighters also fired mortar bombs at the presidency
in Mogadishu as their commanders called for more attacks on the
government. The pro-government militia later in the day wrested back
Dhusamareb in fierce clashes both sides claimed killed several of
their rivals.
(AFP, 3/20/12)
2012 Mar 20, South Africa’s
Supreme Court ruled to allow a review of a 2009 decision by the
National Prosecuting Authority that dropped charges of corruption,
racketeering, tax-evasion and money laundering against Pres. Zuma.
(Econ, 3/24/12, p.49)
2012 Mar 20, Human Rights Watch
accused some in Syria's armed opposition of carrying out serious
abuses, including the kidnapping and torture of security forces, in
a sign of the growing complexity of the year-old uprising against
President Bashar Assad. Fresh clashes broke out in the capital and
security forces killed at least 30 people, all but two of them
civilians, in violence elsewhere across the country. Syrian soldiers
backed by tanks seized the eastern city of Deir el-Zour from rebels.
(AP, 3/20/12)(AFP, 3/20/12)
2012 Mar 20, Thousands of
Tunisians gathered in defense of liberty as they marked Independence
Day amid fears of a widening divide between secular and religious
groups in the newly democratized nation.
(AFP, 3/20/12)
2012 Mar 20, In Yemen all but
two members of former Pres. Saleh's General People's Congress (GPC)
walked out of a 34-member cabinet meeting. Opponents in the new
coalition government soon accused members of Saleh’s party of trying
to hamper political transition in the country. Three Filipino
sailors were kidnapped in Mahrah province.
(AFP, 3/22/12)(SSFC, 3/25/12, p.A4)

2013 Mar 20, The US Congress
foiled the financially beleaguered Postal Service's plan to end
Saturday delivery of first-class mail when it passed legislation
requiring six-day delivery.
(Reuters, 3/21/13)
2013 Mar 20, The US military
and the Afghan government reached a deal on the pullout of American
special operations forces and their Afghan counterparts from Wardak
province after complaints that they were involved in human rights
abuses.
(AP, 3/20/13)
2013 Mar 20, The US announced a
$5 million reward for information leading to the arrest of American
jihadi Omar Hammami and another $5 million reward for a 2nd American
fighting in Somalia, Jehad Mostafa.
(AP, 3/21/13)
2013 Mar 20, It was reported
that Starbucks has purchased a 593-acre farm in Costa Rica.
(SFC, 3/20/13, p.C4)
2013 Mar 20, Bangladesh’s
figurehead Pres. Zillur Rahman (84) died at a hospital in Singapore.
(SFC, 3/21/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar 20, Chancellor George
Osborne said Britain will raise the personal tax allowance to 10,000
pounds in 2014-15, a year earlier than expected.
(AP, 3/20/13)
2013 Mar 20, James Herbert
(69), best-selling British horror writer, died at his home in
Sussex. His 23 novels included "The Rats" (1974).
(Reuters, 3/20/13)
2013 Mar 20, A Bulgarian man,
Plamen Goranov (36), set himself on fire to protest poverty in his
country, becoming the 6th to do so in a month.
(SFC, 3/21/13, p.A2)(Econ, 3/23/13, p.60)
2013 Mar 20, China’s Suntech
Power Holdings Ltd., one of the world's biggest solar panel
manufacturers, was forced into bankruptcy court, becoming the latest
casualty of a painful slump in the global solar industry.
(AP, 3/20/13)
2013 Mar 20, Germany’s
Chancellor Angela Merkel's Cabinet decided not to attempt a ban of
the country's biggest far-right party but said it would support a
bid brought by the country's states — a resolution slammed by the
Germany's main Jewish group as the wrong signal to neo-Nazis.
(AP, 3/20/13)
2013 Mar 20, US President
Barack Obama arrived on his first visit and assured Israel of his
personal commitment to its security. He delivered a blunt warning to
its foes that the US has the Jewish state's back.
(AP, 3/20/13)
2013 Mar 20, In Iraq a
car bomb in eastern Baghdad killed two civilians and wounded four on
the 10th anniversary of the US-led invasion.
(AP, 3/20/13)
2013 Mar 20, Jordan’s King
Abdullah II warned that a jihadist state could emerge on his
northern border in Syria with Islamic extremists trying to establish
a foothold in the neighboring country.
(AP, 3/20/13)
2013 Mar 20, Malaysian
prosecutors charged 8 Filipinos with terrorism-related offenses
following an armed siege in Borneo that killed 71 people.
(SFC, 2/21/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar 20, In Mali a suicide
car bomber killed a Malian soldier near Timbuktu's airport. A
vehicle containing two jihadists exploded as it attempted to
infiltrate the airport.
(AP, 3/21/13)
2013 Mar 20, Mexico’s National
Institute of Anthropology and History said Mexico has sent a
diplomatic note to the French government seeking assistance in
heading off an auction of 51 pre-Columbian Mexican artifacts
scheduled in Paris for March 22-23, arguing they are protected
national historical pieces. Mexico has had laws prohibiting the
export of such artifacts since at least 1827.
(AP, 3/21/13)
2013 Mar 20, Myanmar's
parliament agreed to set up a commission to review the pro-military
2008 constitution, a process that could eventually change the
political landscape and allow opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi to
contest the presidency.
(AP, 3/20/13)
2013 Mar 20, In Myanmar unrest
between local Buddhist and Muslim residents erupted in Meikhtila.
The troubles began after an argument broke out between a Muslim gold
shop owner and his Buddhist customers. Over 30 people were killed
and some 70 others injured.
(AP, 3/22/13)(Econ, 3/30/13, p.39)
2013 Mar 20, A Nigerian
official said at least two people have survived after a boat
carrying more than 100 people capsized over the weekend off Calabar.
(AP, 3/20/13)
2013 Mar 20, Slovenian
lawmakers approved the new-left-leaning Cabinet of PM Alenka
Bratusek, the first female to lead the government since secession
from Yugoslavia in 1991.
(SFC, 3/21/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar 20, South African
trade unions said they are shocked at the disappearance of 24.8
billion rand ($2.75 billion) from provincial governments. The
auditor general reported last week that the money had "disappeared"
in "irregular, fruitless and wasteful spending."
(AP, 3/20/13)
2013 Mar 20, In South Korea a
cyberattack caused computer networks at major banks and top TV
broadcasters to crash simultaneously. North Korea was suspected.
Initial findings said a Chinese Internet address was the source of
the attacks.
(SFC, 3/21/13, p.A4)
2013 Mar 20, Syria's main
opposition group demanded a full international investigation into an
alleged chemical weapons attack in the country's north, calling for
a team to be sent to the village where it reportedly occurred.
(AP, 3/20/13)
2013 Mar 20, Venezuela's
government halted lines of communication established by a top U.S.
diplomat to protest what it says has been US interference in the
country's internal affairs ahead of an election set next month to
replace the late President Hugo Chavez.
(AP, 3/20/13)

2014 Mar 20, President Barack
Obama said the US is levying a new round of economic sanctions on
individuals in Russia in retaliation for the Kremlin's actions in
Ukraine. Obama says he has also signed a new executive order that
would allow the US to sanction key sectors of the Russian economy.
Rossiya, Russia’s 17th largest bank, was included on the sanctions
list. Its owners had ties with Pres. Putin.
(AP, 3/20/14)(Econ, 2/14/15, p.59)
2014 Mar 20, In NYC a
14-year-old boy opened fire in a gang dispute on a city bus in
Brooklyn, fatally shooting a bystanding Dominican man in the head.
Angel Rojas (39) of Brooklyn was pronounced dead at the hospital.
The boy was arrested the next day and charged with 2nd degree
murder.
(AP, 3/21/14)(SFC, 3/22/14, p.A6)
2014 Mar 20, In North Carolina
US Army Gen. Jeffrey A. Sinclair, who carried on a three-year affair
with a captain and had two other inappropriate relationships with
subordinates, was reprimanded and docked $20,000 in pay, avoiding
jail time in one of the military's most closely watched
courts-martial.
(AP, 3/20/14)
2014 Mar 20, In Afghanistan
four teenage gunmen walked into the Serena Hotel in Kabul, made
their way to the restaurant, pulled out hidden pistols and started
shooting diners. They killed 9 people, including shooting AFP
journalist Sardar Ahmad, his wife and two of their children in the
head. Police killed all four attackers after a three-hour standoff.
(AP, 3/21/14)(AFP, 3/22/14)
2014 Mar 20, In eastern
Afghanistan a suicide car bomber blew up his vehicle near a police
station in Jalalabad while other Taliban insurgents stormed the
building, killing 10 police officers and a civilian.
(AP, 3/20/14)
2014 Mar 20, British regulators
fined Mark Stevenson, an ex-Credit Suisse trader, for attempting to
rig the price of government bonds in order to profit from the Bank
of England's quantitative easing program. He was fined £662,700
($1.1 million, 794,000 euros) for "deliberately manipulating" a
government bond, or gilt, on October 10, 2011.
(AFP, 3/21/14)
2014 Mar 20, In Egypt a Cairo
court sentenced 17 al-Azhar students to 14 years in jail for
rioting, damaging public properties and attacking security
personnel.
(AP, 3/21/14)
2014 Mar 20, In Iraq a suicide
bomber struck a Baghdad café overnight killing at least 12 people.
(SFC, 3/21/14, p.A2)
2014 Mar 20, Italian
authorities said they have rescued more than 4,000 would-be migrants
at sea over the past four days as the war in Syria and instability
in Libya spawn new waves of refugees.
(AP, 3/20/14)
2014 Mar 20, Japan’s NTT Data
Corp. agreed to digitize some 3,000 historical Vatican manuscripts
and make them available online.
(SFC, 3/21/14, p.A2)
2014 Mar 20, Kenya's parliament
passed a bill allowing men to marry as many women as they want,
prompting a furious backlash from female lawmakers who stormed out.
Women are not allowed to marry more than one man in Kenya. The bill
must now pass before the president to be signed before becoming law.
(AFP, 3/21/14)
2014 Mar 20, In northeast
Nigeria an explosion at Ngurosoye village market near hideouts of
Islamic extremists killed 29 people. Three more died of their wounds
over the next few days.
(AP, 3/24/14)
2014 Mar 20, A Sudanese worker
for the International Committee of the Red Cross was killed in El
Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state.
(AFP, 3/21/14)
2014 Mar 20, Syrian troops
raised the national flag on the Crac des Chevaliers, a famous
Crusades-era citadel near the border with Lebanon, after days of
intense fighting against opposition fighters. 93 of the opposition
fighters were reported killed as they fled to Lebanon.
(AP, 3/20/14)(AP, 3/21/14)
2014 Mar 20, Pro-Russian crowds
seized two Ukrainian warships and Ukraine said its troops were being
threatened in Crimea as the European Union considered new sanctions
against Russia for its annexation of the Black Sea peninsula.
(AP, 3/20/14)
2014 Mar 20, Turkey’s PM Tayyip
Erdogan's defiantly vowed, on the campaign trail ahead of March 30
local polls, to "wipe out" Twitter, whatever the international
community had to say about it.
(Reuters, 3/21/14)
2014 Mar 20, Several UN aid
trucks crossed the Turkish border into Syria for the first time.
(Reuters, 3/20/14)

2015 Mar 20, The Obama
administration issued the first federal mandates governing hydraulic
fracturing on public land.
(SFC, 3/21/15, p.D1)
2015 Mar 20, US District Judge
Alvin Hellerstein ruled that the US must release photographs showing
abuse of detainees in Iraq and Afghanistan, in a long-running clash
over letting the world see potentially disturbing images of how the
military treated prisoners.
(AP, 3/21/15)
2015 Mar 20, The US FDA
approved genetically engineered foods as safe.
(SFC, 3/21/15, p.A5)
2015 Mar 20, In New Orleans,
La., police shot Richard White (63) three times at the Louis
Armstrong International Airport after he attacked border agents with
a machete and wasp spray. White was shot and died the next day at a
local hospital.
(AFP, 3/21/15)(SSFC, 3/22/15, p.A11)
2015 Mar 20, Bulgaria's
authorities said they had discovered the highly pathogenic H5N1 bird
flu virus in two dead pelicans in a nature reserve in northeastern
part of the Balkan country, close to neighboring Romania.
(Reuters, 3/26/15)
2015 Mar 20, In Canada Raed
Jaser (37), a longtime resident of Palestinian descent, and
Tunisian-born Chiheb Esseghaier (32), accused of plotting to attack
a passenger train travelling from New York to Toronto, were found
guilty of several terror-related charges. They will be sentenced
April 10. On Sep 23 both men were sentenced to life in prison. Each
would have to serve at least ten years before becoming eligible for
parole.
(AP, 3/21/15)(SFC, 9/24/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 20, Beijing shut down
the third of its four coal-fired power plants as part of its
campaign to cut pollution, with the final one scheduled to close
next year.
(AP, 3/20/15)
2015 Mar 20, Cuban media
reported that a local court last week condemned several government
officials to prison terms of between five and 15 years for stealing
and selling millions of eggs on the black market.
(AFP, 3/20/15)
2015 Mar 20, In Denmark two men
suspected of helping the gunman who killed two people in attacks in
Copenhagen last Feb 15 were jailed.
(AP, 3/20/15)
2015 Mar 20, Europol, the
European Union's policy agency, said that raids earlier this week in
Austria, Cyprus, Slovenia and Switzerland led to 26 arrests and the
identification of 14 possible victims of the smugglers. The raids of
brothels and restaurants targeted Chinese criminal networks that
reportedly smuggled people to the continent.
(AP, 3/20/15)
2015 Mar 20, The EU and Balkan
countries launched a campaign aimed at stemming the flow of fighters
from southeastern Europe to join jihadists in the Middle East. The
Balkans are generally considered to include Albania, Bulgaria,
Bosnia and Herzegovina, about half of Croatia, Greece, the Republic
of Macedonia, Montenegro, most of Serbia, and the European part of
Turkey.
(Reuters,
3/20/15)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balkans)
2015 Mar 20, The EU committed 2
billion euros ($2.15 billion) to help Athens deal with what even EU
leaders now call the "humanitarian crisis" hitting Greeks in the
wake of the financial crisis that left the nation on the brink of
bankruptcy.
(AP, 3/20/15)
2015 Mar 20, EU leaders agreed
to increase cooperation with Tunisia following an Islamist attack on
tourists in the capital this week, saying they would also offer more
economic assistance to the new Arab democracy.
(Reuters, 3/20/15)
2015 Mar 20, EU leaders,
concerned about migrants using Libya as a jumping-off point to reach
the continent, pledged to help the conflict-torn country regain
stability but ruled out deploying any security operation.
(AP, 3/20/15)
2015 Mar 20, Ethiopian
officials set fire to 6.1 tons of illegal elephant tusks, ivory
trinkets, carvings and various forms of jewelry on a wooden pyre in
Addis Ababa to discourage poaching and the ivory trade.
(AP, 3/20/15)
2015 Mar 20, Germany-based
Lufthansa canceled hundreds more flights as pilots went on strike
for the third consecutive day and announced they would continue the
walk-out over the weekend.
(AP, 3/20/15)
2015 Mar 20, In eastern India
education authorities said about 600 high school students in Bihar
state have been expelled for cheating on pressure-packed 10th grade
examinations this week.
(AP, 3/20/15)
2015 Mar 20, In northern India
three coaches of a passenger train derailed, killing at least 32
people near Bachhrawan village in Uttar Pradesh state.
(AP, 3/20/15)(SFC, 3/21/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 20, In Iraq and Syria
the US and its coalition allies staged eight air strikes against
Islamic State militants over the last 24 hours.
(Reuters, 3/20/15)
2015 Mar 20, Islamic State
published a video purporting to show the beheading of three Kurdish
peshmerga fighters in northern Iraq by militants who threatened to
kill "dozens" more of those being held captive. The population under
Islamic State control was about eight million people.
(Reuters, 3/20/15)(Econ., 3/21/15, p.17)
2015 Mar 20, Italy unveiled the
newly restored ancient city of Pompeii. It had been destroyed by the
eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD.
(SFC, 3/21/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 20, In Kashmir
suspected rebels wearing army uniforms stormed an Indian police
station, killing a policeman. A four-hour gun battle then left 2
paramilitary soldiers, 2 militants and a civilian dead.
(AP, 3/20/15)
2015 Mar 20, Kenya launched
Africa's first water fund, a public-private partnership aimed at
raising $15 million to provide clean water to 9.3 million people by
protecting the basin of the country's longest river.
(Reuters, 3/20/15)
2015 Mar 20, Liberian officials
said a patient has tested positive for Ebola in Monrovia, deflating
hopes that the nation had beaten the disease.
(SFC, 3/21/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 20, In Mexico about 40
buses blocked one of the main highways leading north out of Mexico
City in a protest over the latest killing aboard a bus by thieves.
(AP, 3/21/15)
2015 Mar 20, Russian President
Vladimir Putin called for a single currency with the Kremlin's
closest ex-Soviet allies at a meeting with his Kazakh and Belarusian
counterparts in Kazakhstan’s capital Astana.
(AFP, 3/20/15)
2015 Mar 20, In Syria a twin
bombing targeting Kurds celebrating their new year in the
northeastern city of Hassakeh killed 49 people and wounded 177
others.
(AP, 3/21/15)
2015 Mar 20, Taiwan authorities
introduced emergency water rationing as the country faced its worst
drought in over a decade and the lowest rainfall in nearly 70 years.
The government last imposed water rationing and anti-drought
measures in 2001 in parts of Taiwan, including Taipei.
(AFP, 3/20/15)
2015 Mar 20, Ukrainian
President Petro Poroshenko said Turkey has offered a $50 million
loan to Ukraine to help cover its budget deficit in a joint press
conference in Kiev with Turkish counterpart Tayyip Erdogan. Turkey
also offered Ukraine $10 million in humanitarian assistance.
(Reuters, 3/20/15)
2015 Mar 20, In eastern Ukraine
one civilian was killed in an attack by pro-Russian separatist
rebels in the government-controlled town of Avdiyivka despite a
ceasefire deal.
(Reuters, 3/20/15)
2015 Mar 20, A new UN report
warned that the world could suffer a 40 percent shortfall in water
in just 15 years unless countries dramatically change their use of
the resource.
(AP, 3/20/15)
2015 Mar 20, In Yemen bombings
targeted two mosques in Sanaa and another in the Huthis' Saada
stronghold, where an assailant detonated his explosives belt outside
a mosque after failing to get in. At least 137 people were killed at
the mosques attended by Shiite militiamen. The Islamic State
jihadist group claimed responsibility.
(AFP, 3/20/15)(Econ., 3/28/15, p.51)
2015 Mar 20, In Yemen
unidentified aircraft dropped bombs over an area that includes the
residence of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi in the southern city
of Aden but he was unharmed. In southern Yemen Al Qaeda fighters
captured al-Houta, capital of the southern Lahj province, killing
about 20 soldiers, before they were driven out by the army late
today.
(Reuters, 3/20/15)(Reuters, 3/21/15)

2016 Mar 20, The United States
and its allies carried out 11 strikes against Islamic State
militants in Iraq and Syria.
(Reuters, 3/21/16)
2016 Mar 20, Cleveland-based
paint company Sherwin Williams said it is buying rival
Minneapolis-based Valspar for about $9 billion.
(SSFC, 3/20/16, p.A6)
2016 Mar 20, In Pennsylvania
retired state trooper Clarence Briggs killed turnpike toll collector
Danny Crouse and security guard Ronald Heist in a holdup attempt in
Fort Littleton. Biggs was shot dead by state troopers while trying
to escape. Briggs had filed for banktuptcy in 2015 with debts of
$315,000.
(SFC, 3/21/16, p.A6)(SFC, 3/22/16, p.A5)
2016 Mar 20, The Australian
government ended its push to log World Heritage-listed forests on
the southern island state of Tasmania, after the United Nations
cultural agency UNESCO issued a report calling for the area to
remain protected from logging.
(Reuters, 3/20/16)
2016 Mar 20, President Barack
Obama arrived in Cuba for a three-day trip, the first by a US
president in 88 years.
(Reuters, 3/20/16)
2016 Mar 20, Benin held a
presidential runoff vote that put PM Lionel Zinsou against cotton
magnate Patrice Talon, who was once accused of trying to poison the
current president. The next day PM Lionel Zinsou conceded defeat to
Patrice Talon in a vote hailed as an example for democracy in
action.
(AP, 3/20/16)(AFP, 3/21/16)
2016 Mar 20, In Cape Verde
Janira Hopffer Almada conceded defeat after the liberal opposition
MPD party took more than 53 percent of the vote with nearly all
ballots counted, ousting the PAICV after 15 years in power.
(AFP, 3/21/16)
2016 Mar 20, The Republic of
Congo voted under a nationwide media blackout, in a tense ballot
expected to see President Denis Sassou Nguesso (72) prolong his
32-year rule over the oil-rich but impoverished nation. Provisional
results showed President Denis Sassou N'Guesso won re-election.
(AFP, 3/20/16)(AP, 3/22/16)
2016 Mar 20, In India the prime
minister of the Tibetan government-in-exile called for China to
engage in dialogue on autonomy for his people's homeland, as tens of
thousands of Tibetans around the world voted for new leaders of a
government that Beijing does not recognize.
(AP, 3/20/16)
2016 Mar 20, In eastern India
three elephants killed 4 people. One elephant in the group, a male,
was tranquilized and later died.
(AP, 3/21/16)
2016 Mar 20, Kazakhstan
citizens voted in a parliamentary election expected to provide a
commanding majority for ageing autocrat President Nursultan
Nazarbayev's ruling party. Preliminary results showed Pres.
Nursultan Nazarbayev's Nur Otan party winning 82 percent of the
vote. International observers, who were allowed unfettered access,
observed ballot-box stuffing and other irregularities.
(AFP, 3/20/16)(AP, 3/21/16)
2016 Mar 20, An Indonesian
military helicopter crashed during a mission to capture Abu Wardah
Santoso, the country's most wanted militant, killing 13 people in
Central Sulawesi.
(AP, 3/20/16)(AP, 3/21/16)
2016 Mar 20, Niger's Pres.
Mahamadou Issoufou ran for a second five-year term against opponent
Hama Amadou, who campaigned from behind bars before being flown last
week to Paris for medical treatment. Issoufou was re-elected.
(AP, 3/20/16)(AFP, 3/23/16)
2016 Mar 20, The Russian
Defense Ministry recorded five violations of a tentative ceasefire
agreement in Syria in the last 24 hours.
(Reuters, 3/20/16)
2016 Mar 20, Top level Rwandan
genocide suspect Ladislas Ntaganzwa (53) was flown from Kinshasa to
Kigali to face trial three months after his arrest in the Democratic
Republic of Congo.
(AFP, 3/20/16)
2016 Mar 20, Senegalese
residents voted on a constitutional referendum that could see
sweeping constitutional reforms including a reduction of
presidential powers and terms from seven to five years, on a
continent where many leaders try to hold onto power. Partial results
showed the pro-government "Yes" camp winning a majority.
(AP, 3/20/16)(AFP, 3/21/16)
2016 Mar 20, In southern
Somalia Kenyan soldiers reportedly killed another 13 militants near
Ras Kamboni.
(AP, 3/20/16)
2016 Mar 20, In northeastern
Spain a bus carrying university exchange students back from the
country’s largest fireworks festival crashed on a main highway,
killing 13 female students and injuring 34 others in Catalonia
province.
(AP, 3/20/16)(AFP, 3/21/16)
2016 Mar 20, Yemeni officials
said at least 55 people, including 14 civilians, have been killed in
two days of fighting between pro-government forces and Shiite Huthi
rebels.
(AFP, 3/20/16)
2016 Mar 20, Elections were
held in Zanzibar with security tight and an opposition boycott in
place for the re-run of October's polls in Tanzania's
semi-autonomous islands, cancelled due to fraud allegations.
President Ali Mohamed Shein of the Chama Cha Mapinduzi party was
re-elected with more than 91 percent of the votes. America suspended
$472 million in aid over the election re-run.
(AFP, 3/20/16)(AP, 3/21/16)(Econ, 10/8/16, p.45)

2017 Mar 20, The United States
criticized the UN Human Rights Council, saying addressing the human
rights situation in Palestine and other occupied Arab territories as
part of its agenda exhibited the group's "long-standing bias against
Israel."
(Reuters, 3/20/17)
2017 Mar 20, FBI Director James
Comey confirmed that the bureau is investigating possible links and
coordination between Russia and associates of President Donald Trump
as part of a broader probe of Russian interference in last year's
presidential election.
(AP, 3/20/17)
2017 Mar 20, US Pres. Donald
Trump asked Daniel Coats, the director of national intelligence, and
Adm. Michael Rogers, director of the national Security Agency, to
help him push back against an FBI investigation into possible
coordination between his campaign and the Russian government. Coats
and Rogers refused to comply.
(SFC, 5/23/17, p.A8)
2017 Mar 20, The US Immigration
and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency issued the first of planned
weekly reports tallying each time local officials declined to hold
foreigners eligible for removal long enough to be picked up by
federal agents.
(Econ, 3/25/17, p.27)
2017 Mar 20, Chuck Barris
(b.1929), a popular game show creator and producer, died at his home
in Palisades, NY. His creations included “the Dating Game"
(1965-1973) and “The Gong Show" (1976-1978). He penned the song
“Palisades Park," which was turned into a 1962 hit by Freddie Canon.
He also wrote included “Confessions of a Dangerous Mind," a spy
comedy that was tuned into a film (1962).
(SFC, 3/24/17, p.D4)
2017 Mar 20, David Rockefeller
(101), US banker and philanthropist, died. He headed Chase Manhattan
Bank from 1969 to 1981.
(Econ, 4/8/17, p.82)
2017 Mar 20, In Afghanistan a
suicide car bomb late today targeted a checkpoint in southern
Helmand province, killing at least six members of an intelligence
unit near Lashkar Gah. Seven other were wounded.
(AP, 3/21/17)(SFC, 3/22/17, p.A2)
2017 Mar 20, Belarus Pres.
Alexander Lukashenko said Western intelligence agencies are using a
"fifth column" to cause unrest and threaten the stability of his
regime.
(AP, 3/20/17)
2017 Mar 20, British mobile
phone giant Vodafone said it will merge its Indian unit with Idea
Cellular to create India's largest telecoms operator, to help fend
off the Mukesh Ambani-backed Reliance Jio, whose recent arrival has
shaken up India's ultra-competitive mobile network market.
(AFP, 3/20/17)
2017 Mar 20, A Czech zoo
started sawing off the horns of its 21 rhinos to protect them from
poaching after the killing of a rhinoceros in France earlier this
month.
(Reuters, 3/21/17)
2017 Mar 20, East Timor held
elections. Former guerrilla leader Francisco Guterres and Antonio da
Conceicao, the minister of education and social affairs were the
front runners. Francisco "Lu-Olo" Guterres received 57 percent of
the vote. His main rival, Antonio da Conceicao, got 32 percent.
(SFC, 3/21/17, p.A4)(AP, 3/25/17)
2017 Mar 20, The European Union
said it is slapping sanctions on four high-ranking military
officials in Syria over the use of chemical weapons in the war-torn
country.
(AP, 3/20/17)
2017 Mar 20, French Pres.
Francois Hollande said world donors pledged more than $75 million to
an historic UNESCO-backed alliance to protect cultural heritage
sites threatened by war and the wave of ideological-driven
destruction carried out by Islamic State group militants.
(AP, 3/20/17)
2017 Mar 20, In French Guiana
demonstrations started when workers from Endel-Engie, an engineering
firm, and EDF, the local utility, blocked roads outside Kourou to
prevent the launch of a rocket from the Guiana Space Center as they
protested high living costs and neglect from Paris.
(Econ, 4/22/17, p.44)
2017 Mar 20, In Guatemala three
policemen were killed late today and seven officers wounded in
attacks on police across the country, hours after a bloody gang riot
in a juvenile detention center was put down in Guatemala City.
(AP, 3/21/17)
2017 Mar 20, Hungary's defense
minister inaugurated a small military base on the country's southern
border for soldiers patrolling to prevent the entry of migrants.
(AP, 3/20/17)
2017 Mar 20, Iraqi forces
battled Islamic State group fighters to push into Mosul's Old City
where thousands of civilians remained trapped under jihadist rule. A
car bombing in Baghdad killed 27 people.
(AFP, 3/20/17)(SFC, 3/22/17, p.A2)
2017 Mar 20, Japan and Russia
agreed to step up work toward resolving a longstanding territorial
dispute through cooperation in a range of areas.
(AP, 3/20/17)
2017 Mar 20, Japan-based
Softbank bought a $300 million stake in WeWork, a trendy
office-rental firm.
(Econ, 4/1/17, p.58)
2017 Mar 20, Norway jumped to
top spot in the World Happiness Report despite the plummeting price
of oil. Denmark fell to second, followed by Iceland, Switzerland and
Finland.
(AP, 3/20/17)
2017 Mar 20, Pakistan's PM
Nawaz Sharif ordered the reopening of the country's border with
Afghanistan, ending a protracted closure that has cost businesses on
both sides millions of dollars and deepened tensions between the two
neighbors.
(AP, 3/20/17)
2017 Mar 20, A Polish court has
convicted a lawyer, identified only as Stanislaw Sz., of spying for
Russia and handed him a four-year prison term.
(AP, 3/20/17)
2017 Mar 20, A Russian group of
reporters said they have uncovered details of a complex system in
which $21 billion were allegedly transferred illegally out of the
country through a network of banks. The reporters in Moscow had
obtained bank records that show that funds were transferred
worldwide via 112 bank accounts in Eastern Europe.
(AP, 3/21/17)
2017 Mar 20, Serbian police
said they have seized over a ton of marijuana and arrested six
suspected traffickers. Police said the marijuana was packed in
Kosovo and was bound for western Europe.
(AP, 3/20/17)
2017 Mar 20, Sri Lanka’s
Criminal Investigations Department (CID) told the Mount Lavinia
magistrate's court that Gotabhaya Rajapakse, who was the country’s
defence secretary during his brother's rule, directed a secret unit
which is accused of assassinating former Sunday Leader editor
Lasantha Wickrematunga in January 2009.
(AFP, 3/20/17)
2017 Mar 20, Uruguay's Pres.
Tabare Vazquez said his country is pulling its soldiers out of a UN
peacekeeping mission in Haiti, where they have served since 2004.
The mission will end this month and the roughly 250 soldiers will
return home in early April.
(AP, 3/20/17)
2017 Mar 20, Pope Francis met
with Rwandan President Paul Kagame. Francis begged forgiveness for
the "sins and failings of the church and its members" during
Rwanda's 1994 genocide, and told Rwanda's president that he hoped
his apology would help the country heal.
(AP, 3/20/17)
2017 Mar 20, Some 60 Venezuelan
soldiers crossed the border into Colombia and raised their national
flag in a camp they set up. They withdrew on March 23 after Pres.
Juan Manuel Santos called his Venezuelan counterpart Nicolas Maduro
to protest.
(AP, 3/24/17)